Christmas Confusion
by Ariza Luca
Summary: (previously Glitch) Christmas is here! And... wow, a lot of interesting guests are making their way here. I wonder why? (Non-canonical to the Hybrid universe)
1. LOG 2-1

**So... I put up the poll... and legit every person who voted voted for this story.**

 **So guess which story I'm publishing now? xD**

 **EDIT: To those of you who have not read 'Hybrid' (probably should have said this the first time around) before, you have to read that first or this story will make no sense. Sorry. Now you are warned. If you have not read Hybrid before you need to go read it. xD**

* * *

 ** _LOG 1-175_**

 _Nothing built can last forever, and every legend, no matter how great, fades with time. With each year, more and more details are lost, until all that remains are myths- half truths._

 _To put it simply, lies._

 _And yet, in all the known universe, from here in this timeless place to the distant and chaotic Far Lands, from the sandy deserts of Crown Mesa to the high reaches of Sky City, from a world filled with the most plebeian creatures to the most difficult Games, the legend of the ORDER OF THE STONE endures, unabridged, as self-evident fact._

 _Indeed, it is only troubled lands that have need for heroes; and we are so very lucky to have, not so very long ago, FIVE heroes such as these._

 _PETRA the Blaze hybrid, whose quick blade and even quicker flames lit the way to victory in many a battle, even if her quick temper did occasionally spawn one of said battles._

 _OLIVIA the Enderman hybrid, an extraordinary redstone engineer that sparked creations and a creature of the End, where so very long ago, the mysterious Ender Dragon dwelled._

 _AXEL the creeper hybrid, whose destructive nature and creativity benefited us all, and whose goofy, playful nature always made him a new friend._

 _LUKAS the ocelot hybrid, whose sharp claws and even sharper mind took them to great lengths, and whose loyalty and kindness never wavered even in the most dire of situations._

 _And JESSE the spider hybrid, who was willing to lend any of her six hands to anyone who was in danger, an amazing multitasker and friend, and leader of the Order of the Stone._

 _Others have created this path for our heroes to follow. The original Order of the Stone, the Old Builders. These five friends have made so many more friends in their journeys across the worlds to fulfill their numerous quests, so many new allies and new enemies, deaths and rebirths, memories lost, and found, and rediscovered._

 _Their greatest quests have all been written in a book that remains in the Order of the Stone's treasure room, in a distant file in a former Bureau of Amalgamology scientist's computer, and have been listed down. So many enemies have been defeated, and so many have been made a friend._

 _These FIVE friends have given so much to gain their rightful place as FIVE heroes, and to prove to everyone that what Gabriel the Warrior once said is, in fact, true._

 _Anyone can be a hero._

 _Even a **hybrid.**_

 ** _LOG 2-0_**

 _Things have changed drastically in the past few months._

 _An enemy Subject Jesse and her friends have never faced before has risen once again._

 _Subject Jesse, Subject Jace, Subject Petra, Subject Lukas, Subject Axel, Subject Olivia, and Subject Reuben will need old friends, old enemies, and new friends alike if they're to have any chance of defeating this new adversary._

 _And they may even have to blur the lines of what's real and what isn't in order to defeat this one enemy that defies the very laws of reality._

 _Because this enemy that they are about to face isn't even supposed to exist._

 _No._

 _Because, you see..._

 _This enemy..._

 _is a GLITCH._

* * *

 ** _GLITCH_**

* * *

It's been 7 months since the whole portal network adventure has occurred. Most of the doorways of the portal hallways have been labelled now (and Soren has fought some of the Old Builders on some of the names).

But this is not something they're worrying about for the next few weeks; the next few weeks have reached the time around the holidays and they are acting accordingly.

Jesse stood up on her tiptoes on the ladder, but she was still just a _little_ too short. "Thanks for helping me string up these-" Cue a tiny hopeful hop to see if that would be enough to get her high enough to put the lights over the edge. Of course, the tiny hopeful hop didn't work. "Lights, Isa."

Isa smiled at the smaller female, trying to hide her amusement as Jesse stretched futilely. "No problem. Aiden and the Blaze Rods _would've_ helped-" And a tiny scowl that appeared whenever she mentioned their names nowadays, "except they have to get a flu shot."

"It shouldn't take them THAT long- Ivor'll give 'em the flu shot, they'll come back up here-" Jesse gave another, futile hop. "And we can actually get the lights strung onto the stupid roof," she finished with an annoyed huff.

Isa chuckled a bit at Jesse's little dilemma as the spider hybrid finally just gave up and climbed on the roof, all of her legs scrambling around to keep her in place and trying to ignore the snow- it was a bit slippery.

"Well, in any case," Jesse finished once she hooked the lights onto the ledge, "I'm glad you guys could make it for the holidays."

"I'm glad too, Jesse- Reuben, what are you doing?" Isa's attention was a bit distracted as she spotted the tiny pink-haired boy trotting along through the snow.

He was hugging a little white thing that looked a lot like Benedict, but he glanced upon seeing Isa. "Oh, hi Ms. Isa!" he called, removing one arm from the little white thing and waving up at her, "I'm bringing Benedict inside; it's freezing."

So the little white thing WAS Benedict...

"Be careful!"

"Okay, Ms. Isa!" and Reuben trotted inside, his pink scarf wrapped securely around his neck.

* * *

"Alright, so... damn, where'd the syringe go?" Ivor muttered, crouching and lifting up a couple of books, before glancing at Hadrian and Mevia. He usually wouldn't have trusted them anywhere near his stuff in a million years, but today was an exception- Harper, Olivia, Ellegaard and Cassie were busy with some machine in the other end of the basement, Axel, Magnus, Gabriel and Petra were having a snowball fight, and several of the others were off doing their own thing. "Do you two think you could watch the substances and make sure that they don't get mixed up? I don't want to give Aiden Gill's flu shot or vice versa. They have specific mixtures."

Mevia scowled slightly at Ivor, but gave him a shrug. "All right."

Ivor shot her a reluctant smile before rushing back out of the room to go track down his syringe and then let the Blaze Rods into the room.

Mevia turned back around to see Hadrian examining the substances in each beaker. "Mevia, do you still have those samples from several weeks ago?"

"Yes, I do, Hadrian," and the cyan-haired woman pulled three vials out of her pocket, the tiniest smile on her face. "It's a good thing they were out shopping that day, else we wouldn't have gotten this."

Hadrian smirked back and regarded the three beakers, before taking one patterned one and dumping it into the one that was celery-green. He took the completely black vial and added it to the one that was dark brown, and then the one that was dark brown to the one that was faintly blue.

Mevia stirred them in so that the mixtures looked relatively normal, although a small worm of doubt was still forming in her stomach. "Do you think this is safe enough?" she asked, onyx eyes narrowing at the beakers. "I mean..."

Hadrian hesitated, his own eyes flickering for a moment, before they flickered shut with the softest huff, and he slipped the vials to the bottom of the trash. "It should be," he said finally after a minute.

The door opened, Ivor shaking the tiny glass syringe in his hand with an annoyed look. "Too bad I left it in the fridge... why I left it there I still have no idea. You three ready for the flu shot?"

"Sure," and Aiden regarded the celery green liquid with some apprehension as Ivor put it into the syringe and gave it a quick shake, "it's not poison, right?"

"I think Cassie would murder me if I poisoned you," Ivor responded offhandedly, making the brunette teenager blush and glare at him. "I-I told you, it's not _like_ that..."

"Oh, really? I beg to differ," Ivor responded calmly, pushing the needle into Aiden's arm and making him wince slightly, before doing it to Maya and Gill in rapid succession, cleaning out the syringe each time. "There you go, you should be set for a while."

Maya let out a relieved sigh. "Thanks, Ivor- every time we do it in Sky... well, the City, it takes us forever."

"No problem, brownie."

Hadrian and Mevia exchanged a both mischievous and concerned look as they all trotted out of the basement, as yet another bang went off down the hallway.

"Cassie, I meant the other one..." Harper's voice echoed down the hall.

"Oh, sorry."

* * *

 _The man was standing in a cave that hadn't been visited in months, the huge screen completely blank, the barest red glow still illuminating everything. He gave his head a sad little shake._

 _"This place has gone to seed, hasn't it?" His voice was deep, thunderous in the silence of the cave._

 _Then he was standing in front of a strange, blackened heap on the ground, a few tentacles strewn on the ground and laying limply everywhere._

 _"This... this is also possibly useful," he mused, a rumble of amusement playing over his lips as he realized the partial joke he'd made._

 _And then he was standing in the temple of the New Order of the Stone, a huge, black egg sitting on the pedestal in front of him. He let out a mild humming sound, still thunderous._

 _"Curious... all of these,_ very _interesting..."_

 _He turned and appeared by the window, black smoke seeming to form around him as he stared outside, a young woman accompanied with a spider-girl trying to string up Christmas lights, laughing at the spider's efforts and making the spider-girl stick her tongue out at the young woman, trying to not look amused by this herself._

 _"Hm... hybrids."_

 _His pure white eyes glowed as a strange, leery grin spread over his face._

 _"Now_ that's _an idea."_

 _He turned back to the egg, the leery smile widening to incredibly large proportions._

 _"And maybe it should start..._ here. _"_

 _He disappeared a moment later, seemingly leaving nothing behind._

 _Well, except for one last thing_

 _The egg's smooth, black shell started cracking._

* * *

 **A/N: HELLO EVERYONE! I am Ariza Luca and WELCOME to Hybrid's sequel! I really hope you liked the first chapter of the story so far! I guess this could be considered an early Christmas gift...? xD**

 **The action has a slow start in this story, but mark my words some _very_ interesting things are going to transpire (haha, I mean happen) over the course of this story.**

 **Speaking of this story, since it's basically a continuation of Hybrid, I'll just respond to all the reviews from the last chapter of Hybrid here xD**

 **Kaos Ruin: Hey, thanks! xD**

 **ChoyofBonk: Well, I _did_ have this planned...**

 **Luna96: (grins)**

 **ThunderstarGames: Orrr I can make this sequel xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Awww, sorry Rebekah xD**

 **RapidSammi: Thanks, friend!**

 **LittleAngelbun: Hehe! And thank you!**

 **NoItsBecky: Aww thanks x3 You check this story for updates lol xD**

 **NinjaCat: I know it's a miracle xD**

 **Guest: ... well they kind of are...**

 **DemonCatLady: Thanks fren! xD**

 **Toni42: Aw thanks! x3 And here, have the sequel instead.**

 **A Person: Thank you!**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: I was planning to do this, but then more people wanted this**

 **Shadow: Oh, thanks! Mine issss Ruby because I act like her a lot of the time xD**

 **SmolGamerBean: Oh! Thanks a lot! (is rather surprised) Yeah, I don't think I can't, but thank you for liking this story!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	2. Flu Fangs?

**I will be publishing about 21 more chapters in order to get this story to around the level of my other ones, so as to not feel like I'm pushing too far ahead. Hope ya don't mind!**

* * *

Call her crazy, but Jesse liked waking up in the mornings.

Mainly because she woke up early and missed the whole 'queuing for the bathroom' fiasco. Seriously, there was a sign-up sheet on the bathroom door and they had to replace it every morning. Sometimes after breakfast she'd pass the bathroom to see Magnus and/or Axel seriously considering blowing up the door to get inside because of how long one person had allegedly been taking inside the bathroom. This is what happens when you have twenty-six-or-so-people in one house for the holidays.

So there she was, just sitting in the kitchen, eating some cornflakes (they were out of other types of cereal; now that Jesse thought about it they probably needed to go shopping) when Aiden sidled in through the doorway. He looked slightly... freaked out as he scratched his arm. "Um.. Jesse?"

"Yeah?" Jesse asked, still eating her cornflakes casually.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did."

Aiden opened his mouth to respond, paused, and then blinked, still rubbing his left arm. "Oh. Uh. Y-yeah, I guess I did." Cue nervous chuckle.

Jesse rolled her eyes- the celery-green-eyed boy was still uncomfortable about being around Jesse after the huge 'Sky City' fiasco, and for that matter around Lukas and Isa and Petra (but not Ivor, for some reason he seemed to just be awkward around the alchemist)- but regardless of that fact continued eating her cornflakes with a small smirk on her face. "Let me guess, did you need some advice?"

"Sort of. I kinda wanted to ask, is it normal to wake up the morning after Ivor gives you a flu shot to have fangs?"

Jesse had been about to eat a mouthful of her cornflakes, but stopped short at Aiden's question. A full minute passed before she slowly set the spoon back into the cereal and turned around in her chair, her eyebrow slowly rising as she stared at Aiden. "Come again?" she asked, red eye glinting in the light slightly.

Aiden rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. Now that Jesse was looking at him, something about his eyes seemed a tiny bit off... "I-I know it's not normal or anything, judging from your reaction... b-but I think I have fangs now- I mean, I bit my tongue this morning, and then I checked in the mirror, and yeah, now I think I have fangs-"

Jesse had been regarding Aiden, but with each passing second it was growing more and more evident that he had slits for pupils. She stood up, making her chair skate back over the linoleum and making the dark-haired boy start back a second. "Hiss," she demanded.

"Wh-?" he began to ask, but Jesse quickly cut him off. "Can you hiss for me a second here? You know, like..." Jesse hesitated before hissing, her chest thrumming slightly as she did so before stopping.

Aiden blinked at her again. "Uhh... sure."

He hissed a bit, revealing that his canines were, indeed, fangs- and the moment the sound came out of his lips, a forked tongue flickered out between his teeth. He clapped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide with shock, before looking back up at Jesse with his hands still over his mouth.

"What in-?" Jesse blurted, taken aback. She recovered and started walking forward as the boy lowered his hands again, hissing and looking down cross-eyed at his definitely-forked tongue. "H-how did...?" she began to wonder, slowly shaking her head.

"That's what I hoped _you_ would know..." Aiden mumbled, his hands still up as he stared cross-eyed bemusedly at his tongue. He blinked. " _Man_ it's weird being able to smell stuff with your tongue." He absentmindedly rubbed his arm again.

Jesse's eyes narrowed as she reached out and tugged his sleeve down, eyes widening as the sleeve fell to reveal a brown, yellowish green, and black pattern of snake scales on his arm, her mouth falling open slightly as she stared. The pattern seemed like a large combination of a lot of snakeskins... none of which Jesse knew off the top of her head, unfortunately.

Aiden's mouth was also hanging open, before he slowly shut it. "... okay, please pardon my language, but what the _f*ck_ is going on?" he finally asked, a strange look crossing his face.

"I don't know..." Jesse bit her bottom lip thoughtfully, glad that there were currently no fangs in her mouth. "... is there anything that could've happened to you during the flu shot?"

He shook his head after a moment's consideration. "No, nothing happened during the flu shot... I mean, Hadrian and Mevia were watching the... mixtures... beforehand..." Aiden trailed off, realization dawning in his eyes, before he looked at Jesse, whose face had gone deadpan, her red eye twitching slightly. There was a full minute's silence.

"... yeah, I think we found the source of the problem."

"Yeah, I think so too."

A short pause once again..

"Notch- _damn_ it I am going to go find Hadrian and Mevia right now and-"

Jesse's description of what possibly gory thing exactly she was going to do to the two Old Builders was cut off by Olivia teleporting into the room, making Aiden yelp and automatically yank his sleeve back up to his wrist and Jesse actually find herself on the ceiling looking down at Olivia. She blushed a bit and climbed back down, doing a flip before landing neatly on her feet. The Enderman hybrid had a look of faint panic in her expression, purple eye actually glowing with concern.

"Um, guys, we... might have a problem."

* * *

 **A/N: Oh boy! Aiden's a snake hybrid! What do you think Gill and Maya are? (wiggles eyebrows)**

 **What do you guys think the problem is?**

 **Fanfiction:**

 **ChoyofBonk: That's for me to know, and you to find out (wiggles eyebrows)**

 **NoItsBecky: Lol! xD Glad to see you're excited!**

 **RapidSammi: Yep! And done :3**

 **Guest: Thanks!**

 **DemonCatLady: Hopefully well... whoof xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	3. Dragon Reborn

Jesse was honestly expecting something a lot more dramatic when she ran into the treasure room from Olivia's dramatic statement of 'we might have a problem'. Maybe a dragon breathing fire everywhere or something. Or maybe some sort of strange creature roaring dramatically or something.

What she was _not_ expecting was a young woman to be huddled on the floor near the pedestal where the Ender Dragon egg had been. A quick glance at the black, curved shards on the floor gave Jesse the answer to what had happened to the egg.

The woman was deathly pale, making her black dress, black hair and the fact that she had no shoes all the more obvious. Her purple eyes seemed to actually glow in the light of the room as she tilted her head up, staring evenly at Jesse. There was a hint of fear in her eyes but it wasn't obvious; at least not to the casual observer.

Reuben looked up and waved at Jesse, smiling. "Hi Jesse!" he called, before looking down at the girl, "Jace popped in here and found her here a bit earlier..."

Jace waved to his sister, his tail wagging cheerfully, before an incredibly tense silence settled in amongst them all.

Jesse decided to break the awkward silence that was currently reigning among the many people standing around in the treasure room; or else they'd probably make the young woman even more uncomfortable than she most likely already was. "Um... hello."

She flinched back at the sight of Jesse. It probably didn't help that Jesse had six arms and was wearing her 'black widow' armor either. Or that one of her eyes glowed blood red in the dark.

All six of Jesse's arms went up in surrender. "Hey, I don't bite." Short pause. "Well, most of the time anyway."

Jesse might've been imagining it, but there seemed to be a sparkle of humor in the young woman's eyes, before it flitted back out again. But if this petrified young woman could even _consider_ laughing at Jesse, they might actually be in business.

"Um, so..."

Jesse was rudely interrupted by Ivor, who scowled at the young woman. "What happened to the egg?" he asked sharply- not exactly yelling, but not exactly sounding terribly pleased.

The young woman flinched again, her entire body going completely tense. "The... egg?" she asked.

Jesse's eyebrow went up. This young woman, with her frail appearance, looked like she'd have a voice rather like glass bells, but instead it was soft and husky and low. It sounded like she might make a fantastic singer.

"Yeah. The Ender Dragon egg," Jesse said, trying to be helpful.

The young woman's eyes narrowed as her legs slowly relaxed and she pushed herself up to her feet, looking around at the shards of black eggshell littering the floor around her as if she'd just realized they were there. "... I think I was inside," the woman stated, rather matter-of-factly.

Aiden blinked at her. Then at Cassie, who just shrugged at him in return, looking just as bewildered as he did. Then he looked back at the young woman. " _What?"_

"Yeah- what?" Soren blinked at the young woman. Most reactions were similar- several consisted of stares. The Order looked as if someone had just slapped them in the face.

Said young woman looked up again, as if realizing there were other people in the room for the first time. "I think I was inside," she repeated.

Jesse felt her eyebrow slowly rising again. "Are you saying," she said, slowly, trying not to sound incredulous, "that you're the Ender Dragon?"

The young woman paused, her head slowly tilting to one side thoughtfully as she considered that. Her luminous purple eyes glowed a bit again as she hesitated, her hands slowly moving so that they clasped together.

"... yes, I think so."

Ivor's eyes narrowed at her. "Prove it."

She tilted her head again, blinking at him with a completely blank expression. Actually, it was a bit disconcerting from how blank her face was. Her eyes seemed to be the 'thing' that emoted. "... you tried to fight me," she said musingly, eyes narrowing. "The orange-haired one-" she nodded at Soren. "- held up this strange block when I tried to attack... and then... I was in darkness? I- I'm not sure," and a faint look of discomfort crossed her face.

The Order all shared a look, before Ivor tilted his head forward in a nod. "I think she's telling the truth. Besides," a tiny smirk came over his face, "I don't think there's anyone who has black hair and purple eyes who live in town."

Harper's lips twitched in an unwilling way.

"Um, do you have a name?"

Jesse glanced over her shoulder to see Em speaking. The burly girl had spoken a little bluntly, and she seemed to realize this and winced upon realizing so, rubbing her head awkwardly.

The other girl didn't seem at all offended or upset about this, though- she just nodded serenely. "Yes? My name is... Ebony? I believe that's my name?" She moved one hand to her chin, her other arm totally bare except for some scars and some scales. "I'm not sure..."

The scales reminded Jesse of something. "Oh, yes, while we're all here, I would like to ask Hadrian and Mevia something," she said briskly, clapping her hands together.

Everyone turned to look at the two Old Builders, who both blinked in surprise. Otto blinked at them, his eyes narrowing at them but saying nothing to his two old friends.

Jesse waited for a minute until all sets of eyes were fixed upon the Old Builders, before continuing, in a light, almost airy tone.

"Perhaps the two of them would like to explain why Aiden is now a snake hybrid?"

* * *

 **A/N: Heh. Hehe. Heh.**

 **Hadrian and Mevia are screwed. xD**

 **Okay but seriously I don't like this chapter for some reason. Next chapter will be much better (I think). Any opinions on this?**

 **RQTC (Random Question of The Chapter): Would you rather be super smart but bad at socializing, or a social person but bad at school?**

 **ChoyofBonk: (Blinks. Proceeds to go check Google. Discovers there is, in fact, such a thing as a llama hybrid.) ... you learn a new thing every day. (laughs) I know how you feel. That's how I feel whenever I read over a chapter. My reaction is basically: 'Oh this is so boring' or 'Oh this sucks... :/'**

 **Luna96: (laughs) I'm glad!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	4. Hide and Go Kill

Hadrian looked completely unperturbed by this question except for the slightest tightening of the jaw, but Mevia couldn't hide a guilty start, wincing slightly. Jesse looked directly at the pale-blue haired woman, gently clapping her hands together. "Would you care to explain, Mevia?" she asked, still keeping a light, airy tone.

"Uh... well... it was... for fun...?" Mevia responded weakly, rubbing the back of her head and trying not to quail under everyone's steadily-becoming-more-severe gazes. Isa in particular looked as if she were about to kick them both in a rather sensitive area.

"..." Jesse stared at Mevia for another minute, before continuing, her voice still incredibly mild, "since Gill and Maya were in the room, I'm assuming you did something to their mixtures as well?"

Mevia remained silent, before rubbing the back of her head and, giving Hadrian a strange look, mumbling at the lowest possible volume her voice could go at, "I... think it might've been... a squid and a bat?"

Hadrian kept staring defiantly, before finally letting out an annoyed sigh. "Yes. It was a squid and a bat," and then he shot Mevia another glare, the pale-blue haired woman wincing. "The squid was given to him," and he gave Gill a nudge in the shoulder, said Blaze Rod edging away from the white-haired Old Builder, "and the bat was given to Maya."

"... oh."

A long silence, in which Maya and Gill looked startled and everyone else was staring between Jesse and the two Old Builders.

"Hadrian, Mevia, let's play Hide and Go Kill." Jesse's voice was still incredibly light and airy.

Ivor raised his hand, pulling out a _very_ wicked looking knife that most of them knew for a fact that he used to cut potion ingredients. "May I join in?"

"You know, I don't think I'd mind that, Dad," Jesse said, her voice still casual.

Hadrian and Mevia both blinked at Jesse. "Wh-?" Hadrian began, but Mevia's already incredibly pale face had gone a shade of pure _white._ "Oh..." Mevia's voice _may_ have risen an octave... or two... or three.

"You have..." Jesse balanced on her tiptoes before rocking back down, a smile coming over her face. "I'll give you five minutes."

Hadrian blinked at Jesse. "Really?"

Jesse hesitated, before blinking and facing Hadrian full-on, her eyes turning blood red and her canines unsheathing as she slowly grinned at him. "Eh, five minutes, five seconds. I'm not really very good at math. One."

"Is- is this really ne-"

"Yes. Two."

"Hadrian, it looks like we're in a rather dangerous situation. Do you think we should run right now?" Mevia asked, her face literally pure white now.

"Three."

Hadrian wasn't the palest person, but right about now he looked like he'd lost three quarts of blood. "Yes, Mevia, I think we should."

The two Old Builders exchanged a look, before turning on their tail and bolting out of there. Jesse waited another half a second. "Four-five- _ready or not here I come!_ " She dropped to all eights and bolted forward, Ivor and Jace charging after her as the wolf hybrid dropped to all fours, his own eyes flaring blood red, followed by a loud shriek from the two Old Builders.

Ebony blinked after them before turning to the others. "This must be a very exciting place to live."

Milo chuckled and rubbed a hand through his disheveled blonde hair. "You have no idea. Would you like me to show you where you'll most likely be staying?"

Ebony thought about that, tilting her head and making her short black hair sway with the movement. "Hmm, alright." And she trotted out after him.

* * *

About an hour later, Jesse came back to the house covered in snow, and towing a rather bruised-and-shell-shocked-looking pair of Old Builders behind her, Ivor and Jace trailing behind. Jace dropped to all fours and gave a huge shake, sending blobs of snow flying everywhere and hitting Jesse in the face. "Oof!" she yelped.

Jace sniggered and gave her a gentle pat on the back. "You'll get used to it."

"I hate you, Jace."

"Lies, you know you love me."

"Do I know that? Yes. Yes I do," Jesse teased back, and this playful banter would've gone on for a bit longer, except there was a loud thud from somewhere in the trees.

Jace's ears pricked upwards, and his tail went ramrod straight. "Did you hear that?" he asked, turning his head around warily.

"Yeah. Ivor?"

Ivor nodded, looking around as well, before noticing some of the bushes to their left were rustling. "Uh, Jesse, Jace?" his voice dropped to more of a whisper as he slowly bobbed his head in that general direction.

Jace nodded and slowly moved in that direction, his tail making low, slow, sweeping motions. Jesse also slowly approached, Ivor staying back on the path (he wasn't really dressed for stomping through the snow, anyway), before Jace leaped into the bushes, sending leaves flying everywhere.

A short pause.

"Um, sis? You'd better get over here quick."

Jesse trotted over, her eyes slowly widening as she did so.

Lying on the ground in front of them, unconscious, was a young man with dark brown hair, tan skin, and a teal t-shirt. Next to him was a girl with ginger hair (like Soren) and a green t-shirt.

"Ohhh boy..."

There was a short silence.

"I think our future is brighter than what they're seeing right now."

"JACE!"

* * *

 _The man was standing in an empty feel, a light snowfall falling and dusting the black carcass on the ground with white flakes._

 _"Hm... number two, isn't it?"_

 _A slow, low laugh rumbled through his chest._

 _"Well, let's see how this goes..."_

 _He disappeared a minute later, the black carcass slowly shrinking and changing, leaving gouges in the earth that the falling snow slowly hid from sight, as if it weren't there at all._

* * *

 **A/N: Lol xD Pun is courtesy of GirlofMyOwnWorld (also known as Gommie) in honor of her early birthday party! x3**

 **RQTC: Would you rather be able to draw extremely well but be unable to write or write extremely well but be unable to draw?**

 **NoItsBecky: (laughs) I know, right?**

 **ChoyofBonk: Hehe xD that's cool. Just do a time skip and go 'Time Skip courtesy of (insert some random thing)'**

 **LittleAngelbun: (laughs)**

 **RapidSammi: (laughs even harder)**

 **Luna96: Yes, if I remember to write it in...**

 **Idon'tlikecheese: Ahhh.**

 **Lucykillrcassie: Sure xD**

 **Guest: Aww I'm sorry xD**

 **RavenBlaze4850: Uhh... nope. They're screwed.**

 **Toni42: (laughs) Um, close, he's a squid. Their reveal is less of a surprise because now they know what's going on. Buuut their powers are still a mystery (grins) And I don't think so... it was just kind of random lol xD**

 **Choco: I know right?**

 **guest1021: (laughs)**

 **GuestPerson13: Nope xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Haha xD I know how you feel**

 **Angelwings: Nope sorry xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	5. Steve and Alex

Steve wasn't really aware of much at first, except that he was in a bed. He didn't really want to get up, actually; he was pretty comfortable. He was warm, cozy, and oh look, his head was throbbing pretty badly.

"Hey, the guy is moving!"

"Oh- he is? That's good, I thought he was dead."

"He was breathing, Magnus."

"Like I can tell with all these blankets."

The arguing that was starting up was making his headache get even more acute, and he let out this incredibly eloquent "Agh".

"Hey! Uh... whatever-your-name is!"

"Hey, let the guy wake up on his own!"

When Steve finally managed to open his eyes, he spotted a bald man wearing green and a brunette woman arguing in one corner, this guy with long black hair and a robe mixing something in the other corner, and a boy with brown hair and what looked like wolf ears now arguing with a redhead who looked _significantly_ like Alex with gold eyes, who then pulled out what looked like a Blaze Rod and waved it around, making the green eyes of the brunette boy follow the gold stick, before she chucked it out of Steve's line of vision and he bolted. There was also a pale girl with black hair standing in the background, purple eyes following the whole scene with this faintly bemused look on her face.

The redhead looked down to see him blinking at her. "Oh. Hi."

Steve bolted upright, ignoring every impulse in his body that was now screaming at him that it wanted to throw up. "Alex! Where's Alex? What happened? Where am I? How-"

The redhead not-too-gently shoved him back down. "Hey, take it easy; I don't know _what_ you did to yourself but it was enough to knock you out. Your friend's fine," she said, adding the last sentence on as an afterthought.

"Oh." Very, eloquent, I know, but what else could he really say?

The redhead smirked a little before leaning back. "Hey, Ebony, do you know anything doctor-ish?"

The pale woman trotted over, leaning over Steve, her short locks dripping over her shoulders as she looked down at him. "... he doesn't seem to have suffered any severe damage," she said mildly, before gently poking him in the side of the head, "but he may have a slight concussion."

The black-haired guy with the robe came over now, holding a flask of something pale green. He blinked at Steve. He had dark blue eyes, Steve just randomly noticed. "Can you sit up?" His voice had a faintly impatient tone to it, but he also sounded sympathetic.

"U-uh... I-I think so?" Steve slowly came up, the slow movement making the desire to vomit much less prominent (but still painfully evident).

"You're lucky that the snow has been dry lately, or else your clothes would've been soaked," the dark-blue eyed guy said as he gave the flask a good shake before uncorking it again. "Drink this."

Steve's stomach rebelled at the thought of ingesting something. "Uh, I don't..."

The black-haired guy made another impatient sound, and Steve decided it'd probably be better if he just took the flask and sipped.

He immediately felt a result; the throbbing in his head lessened and his stomach started settling. He kept taking small sips, each sip making him feel better, until by the end of the whatever-it-was (it acted as a healing potion, but it wasn't like any potion Steve had tried to brew before) the headache was more of a faint thudding in the back of his head and he actually felt pretty relaxed.

"Thank you," he said gratefully, handing the flask back. The black-haired guy nodded, the faintest smile coming over his face. "You have a name, I presume?"

"Oh... yeah. I'm Steve," and he shook the hand the redhead offered him, the green guy and the brunette woman still arguing and the guy with the wolf ears having run off somewhere, before another thought occurred to him again. "Oh, um... where's Alex?"

* * *

"Who the hell are you?"

Even though Alex felt a little like hell (she felt as if she were about to throw up and her head was screaming at her), the blunt, slightly rude question came out of her mouth.

The girl with hair that was even redder than hers looked up, adjusting her black glasses. "Oh...! You're awake," she said, sounding faintly surprised.

A girl with long black hair and a gold pin in her hair stood up, holding a flask of something pale green. "Okay, so I mixed this together properly... well, I mean, according to Ivor's instructions..." she mumbled, giving the flask another good shake.

A blonde guy was sitting in the corner and tossing a ball of yarn around, giving a guy with brown hair and pale-green eyes a wary look. The boy with the pale green eyes winced, stepping back slightly and accidently treading on a guy with dark brown hair (and a beard)'s foot and making him swear violently, jumping into a brunette girl with blue eyes, who yelped and sent the whole group toppling to the floor.

The black-haired girl sat on the bed, holding out the flask. "Can you drink this?" she asked, pleasantly enough.

Alex took the flask but didn't drink it. "Where's Steve?" she asked, warily. "And what _is_ this?"

"Ste... oh! Yeah, he's in another room for now. Um, this is a healing potion mixed with a calming potion and... I _think_ a bit of glistering melon..." The other girl's lips twisted together. "Hm. Oh, and some milk. It'll... um, it'll help the headache... and the possible desire to throw up."

Alex squinted at the other girl for a minute before putting the bottle to her mouth and upending it, gulping down the sweet liquid. Immediately, she got what the girl'd meant- the headache was completely gone now, and her stomach was no longer yelling at her to vomit. "Oh. Thanks."

"No problem. I'm Jesse," and she extended one hand.

Alex reached out, and then paused. She'd just noticed (her headache had been too acute before) that this girl had six arms.

Jesse tilted her head. "Something wrong?"

"Uh... no. I'm Alex. Pleased to meet you," and Alex reached out and gave her hand a shake. Now that she was paying attention, the blonde guy had cat(?) ears, and the brown-haired guy had sharp canines and slit-eye pupils.

"You look like you want to ask something."

"Ah... yeah. Why do you have six arms?"

* * *

 **A/N: Stopping point! xD Lol you're gonna kill me**

 **RQTC: Would you rather be a spider hybrid or a snake hybrid?**

 **rebekahtpe: Lol yep xD And... yeah, insult Jesse. Petra scares me (and so does Reuben, he can beat you up)**

 **GuestPerson13: I know, right?**

 **DayDreamer: Thanks! And lol xD**

 **Lucykillrcassie: No probs :3**

 **Luna96: No story writing. and haha xD**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: I'm not the 'Overlord Author'... I don't even know if there is an 'Overlord Author' lol xD**

 **NoItsBecky: It's so hard to decide xD**

 **Toni42: Thanks! (jumps around)**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	6. Well This'll Be Interesting

Jesse looked down at herself and her extra arms with this supremely unsurprised look. "Hm? Oh, I'm a spider hybrid," she stated calmly, as if she was saying something like "Oh, let's go grab a bite to eat."

Alex blinked at Jesse again. "... pardon?"

"Are you from out of town or something?" Cassie asked, looking a bit interested, "pretty much everyone knows about the Hybrid Order of the Stone."

"Which Jesse is the leader of," the blonde guy piped up, giving the redhead sitting in the bed (hey, that rhymed) a quick glance.

Jesse nodded slightly, the faintest smile coming over her face, before hopping off the bed and sweeping an elegant bow in Alex's direction. "At your service."

Several giggles throughout the room. The blonde in particular was regarding the ceiling with a grin. "You are a dork," he informed her.

"I know," Jesse bobbed her head in a very pleased nod, "Now did you want me to pet-"

Jesse didn't even finish the sentence; he was immediately at her side, his blue eyes sparkling. Sparkling, I tell you. It was unreal.

Jesse laughed good-naturedly and started stroking his hair, making the boy purr in pleasure, his ears twitching. Alex couldn't help but stare a little bit. "Uhhh... is he a cat hybrid?"

"Close; Lukas is an ocelot hybrid," Jesse responded, still petting Lukas.

A girl with dark skin (especially around her violet, glowing right eye, that was blacker than squid ink) suddenly 'bleeped' into sight next to Alex, nearly making the redhead jump and fall out of the bed. "Hey, Jesse- oh, the girl's awake."

"Oh, hey Olivia. Something up?" Jesse asked casually, still calmly petting Lukas as if this was a usual occurrence. Now that Alex thought about it, maybe it was.

"Yeah, the guy's up too."

Alex bolted upright again and actually fell out of the bed this time around, overbalancing and sprawling next to Lukas, who chuckled and reached out. "You need a hand?" he asked, in a friendly way, still letting Jesse pet him. He must _really_ like it when she petted him.

"Uh, th-thanks," and Alex let him pull her back up to a more upright position. She looked up at the MUCH taller Olivia. "Steve's up? He's okay?"

"Yep, and he should be here in about..." Olivia mimed checking a watch. "Now."

The doors banged open, making the brown-haired guy next to the redhead yelp and jump into the redhead's lap, to most of the room's occupant's amusement, and Alex found a pair of arms being flung around her and squeezing all the air out of her lungs. "You're okay!" Steve said, jumping up and down a bit and dragging her along with him so that her knees banged none too gently on the floor.

Alex let out a laugh and shoved him off gently, flicking him on the shoulder. "Oh, woah, hey there, cowboy," she teased, "don't bruise my fabulous knees up, now."

Steve grinned, relief in his eyes, and gently flicked her back. "But, seriously, glad to see you're okay."

"Same here."

Steve looked around for the first time to see the other occupants of the room. "Oh- hi."

Jesse stepped forward, her hand slipping off of Lukas's head (the ocelot hybrid pouted at this) and moving to shake his. "Hello! I'm Jesse. Pleased to meet you," and her green and red eyes crinkled up as she smiled.

Steve's eyes flickered over Jesse's extra arms, before he reached out and gave it a good shake. "Steve. Likewise."

Jesse's smile widened, before she gestured at the other occupants of the room. "This isn't _nearly_ everybody, but this is Lukas," the ocelot hybrid waved, "Cassie Rose-" Cassie stood up and curtsied slightly, "Aiden-" The slit-pupil-eyed boy gave a small nod, his lips twitching into a smile. "Maya-" The brunette girl nodded and waved. "And Gill." The bearded guy waved a bit, a small smile on his face.

Jesse stood up and clapped her hands together. "And... we're probably going to have to introduce you guys to... everyone else."

Gill snorted. "That'll take forever."

"I'm not going to deny that, especially seeing as Em, Nell, and Milo are out getting groceries."

Maya arched her eyebrow at that. "Why those three?"

"Milo and Reginald don't get along so sending those two would be a disaster. Besides, Gabriel said he was going to train Reginald in some fighting styles... Isa, Harper and Soren, oh, and Otto are getting the house ready for winter so it's not freezing... Hadrian and Mevia are currently not allowed outside..." Jesse counted off on her multiple arms, "and Axel's trying to take care of Reuben, Benedict, and Winslow at the same time."

Alex spotted Steve's bemused look at the spider hybrid's extra arms, even opening his mouth to ask. She caught his eye and shook her head, mouthing "Not right now, Steve" at him and making a motion like she was slitting her throat.

He got the hint and shut his mouth again.

"Alright, well, let's go track 'em all down and introduce them," Jesse said, glancing at Olivia, "are the others still in Steve's room, or...?"

"Nope, they went off to go do their own thing," Olivia answered promptly, before pausing and tilting her head to one side, curly hair bouncing around as she did so. "Well, except Ebony, she's just following Ivor around right now."

"Damn, that'll take even longer," Jesse said mildly, before glancing at Steve and Alex, "you two feeling up for a walk?"

Steve sent the redhead a look. She returned it with a shrug, before the two of them looked at Jesse. "Sure."

"Great, now let's go!" and Jesse trotted out of the room, the two new outsiders following her, the other occupants of the room trailing a little ways behind as they all started breaking off into their own separate conversations.

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter is mostly just clarifying who's in the story (and who might show up, huehuehue), maybe an appearance of a new hybrid (maybe) and a bit of humor. Humor is great.**

 **RQTC: Would you rather live through your favorite game fandom (no, you won't die) or your favorite movie/TV-show-related fandom?**

 **NoItsBecky: (shrugs) Possibly?**

 **Luna96: Ehh... I don't know? But I'm an arachnophobe too, so xD**

 **RavenBlaze4850: That is for us both to figure out (seriously, I'm still planning that part xD)**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	7. Interesting Incidents

Jesse poked her head outside the door, just in time to get a rather large snowball to the nose. She also proceeded to topple backwards and topple into Alex, who in turn stumbled into Steve, and the three of them went down like dominoes.

"Whooops! Sorry, Jesse!" Reuben's head popped above the snow, making it look like he was wearing a hat of the white stuff. Well, a hat of snow and Benedict, who was perched on his head and clucking in this extremely pleased way, if chickens could indeed look (or act) extremely pleased.

"Oh, hey Reuben," and Jesse wiped her now freezing-cold face. "Where'd Axel and Winslow run off to?"

Reuben thought about it for a couple seconds. " Beats me. Jace and Petra are having a snowball fight with me and Benedict!" He leaned over slightly, tilting his head and shoving through the huge pile of snow he was currently buried in. "Are the two people okay?"

Jesse rubbed her now icy nose. "What? Oh... yeah. Um, Steve, Alex, this is Reuben and Benedict," she said, indicating first the tiny pink pig hybrid and then the chicken. "Reuben, Benedict, this is Steve and Alex."

"Does the chicken understand you?" Alex looked a bit weirded out as she asked this question. Understandably. Steve just looked amused about the whole thing that was going on in front of him. Also understandably.

"I speak decent Chicken," Reuben responded solemnly.

"No, really, he does," Jesse assured upon seeing Alex's faintly skeptical look. "He also speaks acceptable Spider, although it does sound a bit too phonetic at times."

"I like languages," Reuben said cheerfully, before one hand popped out of the snow and pointed. "Also, Ms. Alex, you might want to look-"

A snowball hit said redhead in the face and bowled her over. "- out," Reuben finished, Benedict letting out another pleased cluck.

Petra waded over, waving one arm like a pinwheel. "Hey! Hey, Steve. Hi... Alex, is it?" she asked, shaking some snow crystals out of her hair, amusement dancing in her gold eyes.

"Oh- hi, Petra," and Steve waved his arm a bit.

Another head popped out of the snow, making Steve jump a bit. Jesse stifled a laugh at the sight of her twin brother's brown hair topped with snow, making him look like a cake with wolf ears. Oh, and his tail poked out, too. "Hi Steve!"

"Um, Steve, you probably don't know this dork," and Jesse reached out and ruffled her twin's hair, "but this is my twin brother, Jace. Alex, well, this is Jace. Jace, this is Steve and Alex."

"Ohhh, I get it," Alex said suddenly after a moment, "wolf spider..."

Jesse blinked at the other girl, then at Jace, who blinked at her, before a faintly amused smile came over her face. "You know, I never actually considered that..." she mumbled, thoughtfully.

* * *

The clash of sword-on-sword rang out as they approached the training room.

"Uh, you might want to be careful upon entering," Jesse said, quickly, "the training battles can get a bit... heated."

"Uh, we know how to fight," Alex said, giving Jesse a sarcastic smirk, "I think we can handle it."

Jesse gave Alex a long, wary look. "Suit yourself," she said at last, before opening the door.

The door had barely eked open before she suddenly lunged at Alex and tackled her to the floor, Reuben jumping up suddenly and knocking Steve the other way, everyone else ducking down as a wooden sword came spinning out like a spinning top and embedded itself in the wall opposite.

"I- I am _so_ sorry!" Reginald apologized profusely, dashing out into the hallway and trying to yank the sword out of the wall, as Gabriel laughed kind-heartedly from where he was inside. Not that he was the only one- Petra was dissolving into a fit of laughter, and even Jesse was trying to smother a grin.

She raised her eyebrow at Alex, who was blinking at the whole thing.

"... I take that back."

Jesse gave a kind laugh and extended her hand. "Uh, this here is Reginald-"

"Can I call you Reggie?" Steve wondered, scratching his head. Jesse gave a light little cough and turned her gaze to the ceiling, grinning aimlessly.

"I would... _really_ prefer it if you didn't," Reginald said, clearing his throat a bit, looking sheepish.

"Oh."

"And this here is Gabriel," and she patted the warrior on the shoulder as he came over, standing up and dusting herself off. Gabriel nodded and smiled at them. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Uh, Gabriel, Reginald, this is Steve and Alex," Jesse said, her six arms gesturing at the male and the female.

Alex looked a bit interested. "D'you mind if we come and train in here a bit too?" she asked Jesse.

"Feel free to do whatever you'd like," and Jesse gave Alex a light pat on the back, and a warm smile. Alex blinked at Jesse, before slowly returning it.

* * *

Jesse was walking along the hallway with the little group, when she suddenly paused. "Oh... duck."

"Wh-"

"Just duck," and Jesse dropped to the floor, Jace diving to join her with a rapid nod. Everyone bemusedly squatted down, before a large paintball hurtled over their heads and smashed into the other wall, splattering paint all over the place, including the small group.

Alex blinked. "What...?"

" _GET YOUR OLD BUILDER BUTTS BACK HERE!_ "

Jesse let out an amused yet annoyed sigh at the sound of Axel shouting at the top of his lungs. Her suspicion was confirmed when Hadrian and Mevia, covered in paint, some gunpowder, and other various prank-ish things that Jesse had seen Axel using, skidded around a corner and dived behind the group.

Steve blinked at them, before looking at Jesse. "Um...?"

Jesse gestured vaguely. "Hadrian, Mevia, this is Steve and Alex. Steve, Alex, this is Hadrian and Mevia," she said, before jerking her head at the doorway. "And the guy yelling at them would be Axel."

"WOULD YOU- oh hey, Jesse, how you doing?"

Jesse laughed a bit. "Pretty good. Axel, meet Steve and Alex."

"Pleased to meet you," Axel said pleasantly, leaning over and setting down his various prank items.

"Mmmnn. Now, Axel, what have we said about prank items?" Jesse asked, placing her hands on her hips and crossing the two upper sets.

"... don't use them in the house..."

"Mm-hm. Now, if you wish to use them _outside_ ," Jesse said, a mischievous grin coming over her face.

"... ahhh. Well, c'mon you two!" And Axel reached out and heaved them into the air, making the two of them yelp in shock, "we're going to have some _fun_ outside!" and he marched outside, carelessly kicking along his prank items.

"... I get the feeling he doesn't really like them," Steve said, blinking.

"You would be correct about that."

* * *

 **A/N: Haha xD Today in PE I did something similar to what Reginald did; I let go of my badminton racket and threw it xD**

 **Next chappie will be fun x3**

 **RQTC: Would you rather listen to only one really good artist for the rest of your life, or listen to a ton of crappy ones?**

 **GuestPerson13: They've faced weirder lol xD**

 **Luna96: Hehe xD**

 **NoItsBecky: (laughs) For me it's like MCSM vs. like Ninjago so it's kind of a toughie**

 **Toni42: (grins wickedly) Oh, I have a _few_ ideas... and I know, right?**

 **Lucykillrcassie: Ahh, sorry... once I start adding OCs things get a bit messy, especially because I don't see how I could fit one in... sorry!**

 **rebekahtpe: Lol xD (joins you in chanting 'TOAST')**

 **ChoyofBonk: Indeed xD and oh dear xD (about both the chapter and the llama)**

 **ShadowWind: I dunno, what do you think? (evil grin)**

 **Choco: They are xD**

 **LittleAngelbun: Kewl :3**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	8. An Alarming Development

Jesse spotted Ivor tinkering with a potion and keeping an eye on Ebony in the library.

"Oh, hi Ivor," and Cassie squeezed into the room, Jesse sidling aside, "how did you come up with that healing potion-calming potion mixture?"

Ivor looked up and gave the redhead a small smile. "Oh- hello! Er, actually, part of the idea came from Wither Sickness being able to be healed with milk... and of course it does help when you're healing a patient for said patient to not be having a panic attack..."

Jesse laughed at that. "True. How's Ebony?"

Ebony turned around to see them, having been reading one of the books. Jesse recognized it to be the book Lukas had been writing in for a while- he'd decided to edit it and pulled it out of the treasure room (to the disappointment of quite a lot of people- people had started coming in just to read it). "Oh... hello," she said, and she shifted the book so she could wave at them.

Lukas's ears perked up upon seeing which book she was reading. "Hey, how do you like the book?"

"This? Oh," and Ebony looked down at the book as if she'd forgotten she was reading it. She was one of the more absentminded people Jesse had met. "I like it... did you all really fight a giant computer?"

Lukas shuddered, his hair standing on end. "Unfortunately."

Jesse reached out automatically and started petting him, making his hair relax again as he slowly started purring, teal eyes slowly relaxing again.

"Ooh! Me too!" and Jace dived under Jesse's other hand, making the black-haired girl chuckle and start petting her twin brother's hair as well with a roll of her eyes, grinning at Alex and Steve. "Uh, this is Ebony," and she pointed at Ebony with one of her upper arms, "and the potion guy is Ivor."

"He's like her adopted dad," Petra added helpfully, still steaming; the snow had started getting rather wet since it'd started snowing.

"Forget 'like', she's pretty much my daughter at this point," Ivor said, standing up and patting Jesse gently, making the spider hybrid herself make this humming noise that sounded _very_ similar to purring.

Alex's eyebrow went up. "Y'all _really_ like being petted, don't you?"

"You have no idea," Ivor grinned as he kept petting Jesse.

"Sis, you're fantastic," Jace said dreamily as he made a sound rather akin to purring as well, "if I ever have kids, I'll name all of them after you."

"Please don't, that would be... ahh... that would be weird," Jesse finished, her own eyes sliding out of focus.

Ebony blinked at this whole scene in faint amusement, and... almost a note of longing.

Jesse spotted it even through the incredible pleasure she was experiencing at being petted. "Ebony, get over here."

"Eh? Alright..."

When Ebony got within reach, Jesse reached out with one of her upper hands and started patting Ebony. Ebony herself looked incredibly bewildered for a moment, before her eyes relaxed. "Ah... that's..." She let out her _own_ purring sound. "... that's quite nice..."

Aiden was making this weird face in an attempt not to laugh. It really wasn't working.

* * *

Soren poked his head into the library, making a large blob of snow slip from his unruly ginger hair and hit the floor.

Jesse leaned over from where she was now sitting on the couch to see who it was. "Oh- hi, Soren. Uh, Steve, Alex, this is Soren."

Soren glanced up to see the girl and the boy who Jesse and Jace had found. "Oh, hello!" he waved, making more snow fall out of his hair. He grumbled and swatted at his hair, getting some more snow out.

"Did any of you see Iv- oh! There you are, Ivor."

Ivor twisted to see Harper, and got up so fast that he managed to trip over thin air and land on his stomach with a yelp. Jesse stifled a giggle at this, Reuben not bothering to hide it as he hugged Benedict. Benedict looked _very_ pleased about this.

"Ah, hello, Harper," and Ivor grinned, trying to hide the sheepishness in his voice. He twisted to see Steve and Alex and nodded at the dark-skinned Old Builder. "Ah, Steve, Alex, this is Harper."

"Pleasure," and Harper nodded a bit before swatting at her soaking-wet robes. "Honestly, the day we decide to get the house ready for winter is when the snow starts getting wet..." she muttered, gray eyes dimming.

"Quite convenient," Otto added drily as he came in, his own green robes miraculously dry.

The two Old Builders in the doorway gave him deadpan stares. "... we hate you," they chorused, staring at him.

Otto just smirked a bit before bowing a bit upon seeing Steve and Alex. "Good day. I am Otto."

"Oh!" and Jace hopped to his feet, making Jesse start a bit, "Otto, this is Steve and Alex. Steve, Alex, this is Otto."

Steve got up and bowed slightly, smiling slightly. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Otto said, nodding slightly again.

A soaking-wet Isa poked her head into the room. "Has anyone seen- oh, never mind. There you are, Benedict!"

Reuben rushed over and set Benedict on the floor, the chicken clucking cheerfully and butting her head against Isa's leg, making the elegant Old Builder kneel down and start petting the chicken. "Oh, aren't you adorable? Yes you are," she cooed.

"Um, Mr. Steve, Ms. Alex, this is Ms. Isa," and Reuben pointed at the cooing Old Builder, who was now cuddling Benedict.

* * *

Em was tromping through the snow, when she paused. "Hey, Nell...?"

"Yeah, Em?"

"... isn't this the area where that... um, Wither... storm thing was?"

Nell looked at where Em was indicating. "... oh yeah."

Milo blinked. "But there's... I don't see it."

"No, neither do I..." Em's eyes scanned the landscape, before she spotted something in the distance.

Gouging a path through the snow, her eyes widened upon seeing someone lying in the snow, shivering and struggling to get up. "Oh _sh!_ t!" And she pulled the person out of the snow. It turned out to be a girl with extremely long, curly hair. Her skin was deathly pale, except for her hands, which seemed to be tinged black. She was also wearing a black suit over a pink shirt.

Em proceeded to swear again and waded back over to Milo and Nell. The two blondes looked incredibly startled. "Oh, man, is she okay, brah?" Nell asked immediately, blue eyes narrowing in concern.

"I, uh," Em looked down at the girl in her arms. "That's... I don't... know...?"

Milo examined her. "She seems to be breathing... but we should probably rush her back home so she doesn't get any colder," he suggested, blue eyes narrowing as he desperately tried to figure out what to do. He'd lived in Sky City almost all his life; he didn't know what to do in this situation.

"Good idea," and he yelped as Em hoisted him and Nell onto her shoulders and started charging through the snow back home- carefully, of course, she didn't want the other two to fall off.

* * *

 **A/N: Can anyone guess who this is? :3**

 **RQTC: Would you rather be a villain or a hero (in a play)? I'd rather be the villain lol xD**

 **ChoyofBonk: (laughs)**

 **Luna96: Thanks!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	9. A Storm's Return

Ebony was a bit confused. About ten minutes ago, the big girl (Emily?), the blonde girl (Nell?) and the blonde guy (Miller? No, Milo) had come running in holding someone. Now said someone was taking up a bed.

She was just as pale as Ebony was, although her skin looked more peaky and unhealthy rather than natural, like Ebony's. A huge scar ran through her the right side of her face, right through her right eye, although her wavy, curly black hair did quite a lot in keeping it covered up. She was also much thinner than Ebony, to the point where Ebony could've counted her ribs had she really wanted to.

The redhead (Alex?) was sitting in the same room as her, as was Jesse. The others had decided to go check around the town and see if there were any missing people with this young woman's description. Reuben, Benedict, and Winslow being excluded (Winslow couldn't stand the cold, Benedict was too small to go through the snow, and Reuben was tired of it).

Ebony was shaken out of her thoughts by the sight of the young woman on the bed letting out a soft sound and slowly sitting up. She blinked her indigo eye several times before Ebony and the others seemed to come into view, before she pulled the blankets up to her face, as if trying to hide it.

"Hey, the new girl's up, too!" Alex bounced up and trotted over, making the other girl stare up at her fearfully. "Hi. Nice to meet you. I'm the spirit of vengeance and death!"

Said new girl blinked.

Alex laughed a bit at that, her eyes crinkling up. "Nah, I'm Alex. Nice to meet you."

"Hi, I'm Jesse," and Jesse waved one of her many arms at the young woman, who bobbed her head slightly, still looking frightened. "Nice to meet you, too!" She gestured with her entire left side's worth of arms. "This here is Ebony."

Ebony inclined her head. "Pleased to meet you," she said softly.

Reuben chose that moment to trot in the room, holding Benedict. "Hey, Jess-" He froze, pale brown eyes going wide. The girl in the bed blinked at him with her one still-functioning eye. Reuben seemed to tremble, but Ebony wasn't sure if she was just imagining it or not.

And then Reuben stepped backwards, eyes still wide. Benedict was definitely vibrating in his grip now; he was _definitely_ trembling. "... Jesse? Can I talk to you in the hallway?" he asked, his voice quivering.

"Wha? Oh. Sure," and Jesse, though looking incredibly bemused by this turn of events, she let the little pig hybrid lead her out into the hallway. Ebony blinked after them, before blinking at Alex (who just shrugged slightly), before looking at the girl in the bed.

The girl in the bed finally cleared her throat a bit and spoke in a soft voice. "Um... may I please have something to eat?" she asked, slowly shifting backwards a bit nervously. As if on cue, her stomach proceeded to growl, and she crossed her arms over her stomach, giving it a cursory glance.

"Oh! Uh, sure... Ebony, do you know where the kitchen is?" Alex glanced at the short-black-haired girl.

"Eh? Oh... yes. One moment," and Ebony trotted out towards the hallway.

As she exited the room, she nearly ran face-first into Jesse, who had turned as pale as Ebony was. Actually, right about then they looked like a pair of twins.

"Oh, hello, Jesse. Is something the matter?"

"... not yet. What are you doing?" Jesse relaxed, but Ebony could still tell she was tense. She wanted to ask about it, but at the sight of Jesse's freaked-out face, she decided against it. "Um... I'm getting some food for her. She's hungry."

"Oh." Jesse smiled slightly. "Do you know where the kitchen is?"

"Yes, Milo showed me where it was before he had to go get groceries," Ebony said, bobbing her head up and down a bit.

Jesse nodded and patted the girl on the shoulder, before walking into the room again. Ebony watched her go, before trotting down the hall to go get some food.

* * *

"We couldn't find _one_ person who knew who she was," Milo huffed, flopping down onto the couch with an annoyed look, "most of them haven't even seen her before."

"Makes me wonder if she ran away from someplace," Reginald agreed, the blonde innkeeper of Sky City casually edging away from him.

Lukas stretched out on the couch as well, his tail flicking slightly in agitation. "Yeah... she seems really familiar, though. I was sure she was from town..." he muttered, musingly.

Reuben was sitting in one of the huge armchairs, also looking oddly pale for some reason. Benedict had picked up on the little pig hybrid's mood and was clucking at him in concern. Isa glanced at Benedict questioningly, the little chicken turning and giving her owner what could only be described as a shrug.

Winslow was purring in Cassie's lap, but his hair seemed to be a little on end, and his green eyes seemed to be fixed on Reuben- looked as if Benedict wasn't the only one who'd picked up on the pig hybrid's mood.

Jesse came into the room, still incredibly pale. Alex and Ebony followed a little ways behind, Jesse sitting in the same armchair Reuben was. Every single occupant of the room stared at her curiously; there was a definite tremor to her hands.

"Hey, sport, you alright there?" Hadrian asked, curiously. There seemed to be a note of concern in his eyes, but it was so subtle that only the Old Builders noticed.

Jesse blinked slowly. "... sort of? Uhh... well, I have something to tell you guys..."

Ivor blinked, slowly straightening up. "What? What is it?" he asked.

Jesse's hands tightened as she glanced at Reuben, who exchanged the look with her with a look of almost the same nervous manner she was exhibiting. "Um..." Jesse slowly inhaled and exhaled, her fists trembling again as she did so.

"That girl, lying in the bed... well, I don't know how this is possible, but,"

 _"She's the Witherstorm._ "

* * *

 **A/N: How many people saw this coming? Be honest :3**

 **RQTC: How much do you dislike someone looking over your shoulder while you draw or write?**

 **NoItsBecky: Lol yep xD**

 **Lucykillrcassie: Sorry... (cough) but ask again much, much later and I might be able to do something about it (cough)**

 **Choco: Yep, but I'm just trying to get it caught up to the level my other stories are at (so... basically I have to publish 14 chapters by tomorrow xD )**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	10. Lightning Does Strike Twice

**I'm a little surprised I even have to type this...**

 **If you haven't read Hybrid yet, then stop reading this story (I'm surprised you made it to this point, honestly) because it's not going to make sense and you're just going to be like "wut". READ THE FIRST DANG STORY FIRST PLEASE xD**

 **I'm only saying this because I received a review that basically said "this story sucks" and I reread the review and figured out they didn't even read the first one. -_- Like, logically, if you see that something isn't the first story in the series, wouldn't you go read the first one first? (especially if you've written it in the DESCRIPTION and in an AUTHOR'S NOTE)**

 **Sorry for ranting (sweatdrops) It's just been bothering me all afternoon**

* * *

"WHAT?!"

Every person who had been present during the Witherstorm's little rampage way back when was now on their feet, a few accidentally dumping others onto the floor (Lukas accidentally flailed out in a hot panic and knocked Milo to the floor) and another select few managed to even trip over their feet (Ivor jumped, tripped on thin air, and toppled forward, managing to land flat on top of Milo, who let out a very high-pitched squeak).

Ellegaard managed to splutter out an incoherent shrieking string of words that no one could make head-or-tails of (there may have been a couple incoherent expletives, but no one could really tell) until she finally yelled out at the end of said long string, "WHAT IN THE NAME OF NOTCH _HOW WHAT **WHY**_?!"

"Glad to see your grammar is intact," Ivor said faintly as he struggled to get off of Milo without injuring the blonde former-Sky-City innkeeper, his dark blue eyes wide with shock. She smacked him, still staring at Jesse and Reuben.

Reuben shivered, hunching down into his seat, hugging Benedict, who nestled into his shirt comfortingly with a cluck. "I just... well, when you've been tangled so deeply with something like that, you don't forget it," he said, his voice getting incredibly small.

Jesse absentmindedly looped Reuben into a hug, her arms pulling him into the embrace as she stared at her knees, red-and-green eyes dimming slightly.

Cassie gave the softest little cough, making all of them glance at the redhead. "Uhh... sorry if I sound stupid or something, but what is the Witherstorm?"

"... oh... we never mentioned it to you, did we..." Lukas murmured, his tail twitching uncomfortably.

Mevia shook her head, giving everyone nervous glances. "No.. we never heard anything about it," she put in tentatively. Nobody glared at her- they just nodded in return to that statement.

Everyone shared awkward glances with one another, not sure how else to put it. Finally, Magnus spoke bluntly, "The Witherstorm was this huge monster that was basically a Wither that tried to eat the whole world."

"Understatement of the year," Jesse muttered, still staring at her knees uncomfortably.

"We nearly lost a lot of people to the Witherstorm," Aiden picked up, crossing his arms, "this includes me and the other Blaze Rods," he circled them with his arm vaguely, "and Ellegaard...?" He glanced at the redstone engineer for confirmation, although it was Olivia who actually nodded. "And Reuben _did_ die."

A lot of the people glanced uncomfortably at the little pig hybrid, who currently had his face buried in Jesse's shirt and wasn't emerging. Steve coughed slightly, looking a bit uncomfortable, "how is that possible...? If he was dead, then...?"

"Respawning."

Everyone glanced at Hadrian, who usually avoided talking now- it usually brought on this huge onslaught of death glares that made the two Old Builders extraordinarily lucky that looks couldn't kill. Not this time, though- this time it just brought on this huge flood of confused glances.

"We- ah, Mevia and me-" he gestured vaguely at his pale-blue-haired cohort, "and Otto.. oh, yes, I suppose Harper, Soren, Cassandra and Isa as well," he added as he remembered, "made this process in which if someone dies, they come back."

"How do you _do_ that?" This was Alex, her eyes sparkling with interest as she leaned forward, Witherstorm momentarily forgotten.

"A lot of redstone and alchemy was involved," Isa spoke up this time, "the alchemy which Harper and I mostly blundered through and managed to find a good substance which worked. We used other mobs as test subjects first, but then the mixture changed so that when it worked fully, it would only work on humans, or at least partial humans... why was that? Was it the Spider Eye that we added?" she wondered, glancing at Harper.

Harper's lips twisted thoughtfully, making Ivor smile slightly. "Hmmmnn, I'm pretty sure it was the Glistering Melon... a-anyway, that's not the point- we were able to bring Reuben back to life," she said, hastily dragging them all back on subject.

Steve and Alex glanced at each other with rather interested looks, but the only thing they said in response was, "Cool."

"So, this... 'Witherstorm'," Em spoke, looking a little disconcerted, "it tried to destroy the whole universe?"

"That's the most succinct way of putting it, yes," Jesse agreed quietly, still hugging Reuben tightly- perhaps a bit more tightly than was necessary, as Benedict's muffled, complaining squawk sounded. "Rambling on a bit, it gave Petra Wither Sickness... Gabriel got amnesia..." A shiver trembled down her back and shoulders. "Ellegaard almost died... Reuben died... Hell, I think _I_ almost died... it gave a ton of us PTSD," she added, her grip tightening even more, as evidenced by her white knuckles and the fistfuls of shirt fabric that she was now clutching. "If that thing was on a rampage again... well, all I can say is, we barely were able to beat it the first time, and that wasn't without sacrifices."

It was Jace who brought on the most alarming part of the conversation again, his wolf ears twitching uncomfortably.

"And now it's back again."

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry about the shorter chappie! Didn't know what else to do x3**

 **RQTC: Does it annoy you if someone reads the sequel of a story you wrote without reading the first one? Or, heck, not even one you wrote, just in general.**

 **Toni42: I KNOW RIGHT xD That's so cool! I didn't know that :3**

 **NoItsBecky: Hehe xD**

 **RapidSammi: Glad ya like it!**

 **Luna96: Agreed! And lol don't worry, it'll eventually get less confusing xD**

 **LivtheWarrior: Oh, thanks! I'm glad ya like it :3 And I'm surprised that a few people were surprised by this xD And also YES Egg's Guide is awesome**

 **Angelwings: Uhh.. I watch LDShadowLady and Stampylonghead/Stampycat. That's it xD**

 **Dorkpig: ... yes, I know this isn't like the actual series. This is a FANFICTION. Fanfictions are BASED OFF OF a fandom, not ripping it off. Also, why do people say 'no offense' when they mean offense xD Also, please be more polite when reviewing in the future, I receive very few criticisms (not that I dislike them- please give them to me, I need improvement suggestions) and I'm not used to them. And yes, hybrids. Have you even READ the first story? I know you read the description, but apparently you didn't understand that the SEQUEL comes after the FIRST story and you need to read the FIRST story before going to the sequel. I am really sorry if I'm being rude, but your grammar/structuring of the review and the fact that you _didn't even read the first one_ bugs me to no end. Not to mention that you stated not once, but twice that it was bad. Okay, I get it, you don't like it... I got it the first time. Thank you for reading my rant (if you ever in fact return to this story), but your comment will be stewed over because of how much it bugs me (grammar/structure, the fact that you didn't read it, and the fact that you weren't exactly polite about the criticism) and then ignored.**

 **Sorry to all the normal people about this huge rant above. It's just been bothering me for hours now and I needed to get it out.**

 **MidNightTwist: Lol I know right xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Yes, I like persimmons x3 And lol, I'm glad xD**

 **Guest: Haha x3**

 **NightShadeNinja: No problem! It's just that I can personally write girls better (but there will be a boy, don't worry) and the fact that female villains are cool xD**

 **Choco: Lol xD And yes, I got too much in my system xD**

 **LittleAngelbun: (le gasp)**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	11. Hurricane Nariko(?)

There were some footsteps, and then a knock on the living room door.

Jesse twisted around. "Ah, come in," she called.

The door slowly shifted open, catching on the carpet, before shutting and then pushing open a bit more carefully.

The peaky girl from earlier edged in, her suit somehow looking very crisp and clean and contrasting against her unhealthily pale skin, dark circles under her eyes, and her incredibly thin body to the point where it looked unhealthy. Dark purple circles underscored her eyes, even the one which had the scar running through it. Her curly hair almost completely covered it, and her indigo eye slowly shifted around the room. "A-ah... hello..." she said softly.

Jesse jumped a bit, several other members of the room tensing. "Oh- hi, um... did you have a name?" she blurted out, the first thought that popped into her head.

The girl shifted her position slightly. "... ahhh... no, I don't think so." Her inky fingers clung to the doorframe as if she was afraid that a good gust of wind would blow her away. Jesse could see why one might have that worry, . It was hard to imagine that this thin, frail, unhealthy-looking person could be the Witherstorm.

"Oh." Awkward pause. Olivia rescued her by asking, "do you want us to give you a name so it doesn't get confusing?"

The Witherstorm-girl blinked, her one still-functioning eye winking at them. "Ahh... okay."

"Just, um," Olivia glanced at Axel, who lifted his burly shoulders in a faintly bewildered manner. "We'll just- tell you random names and you can tell us if you like it."

The Witherstorm-girl inclined her head in a nod, still clinging to the doorframe.

"Uhh, okay... Emily?"

The Witherstorm-girl shook her head, doing it more and more until it was pretty much just a vigorous, continuous motion from all the suggestions currently bombarding her.

"Samantha."

"Ariel."

"Annie."

"Florentine."

"Calico."

"Gray."

"Blackie."

"Shadow."

"Ebony."

"That's already someone else's name! They're sitting right in the room with us!"

"Well, sorry I'm not original!"

"Nariko?" Jesse suggested tentatively. She'd read a story where the character's name had been that- apparently it meant 'thunder child', and storms had thunder, so... why not?

The Witherstorm-girl began to shake her head, stopped, thought about it for a moment, indigo eye narrowing thoughtfully, and then nodded a bit in return.

"Alright, nice to meet you, Nariko," Jesse said, even as Reuben clung to her ever-more tightly (Benedict gave another squawk of complaint), before standing up, her two lower sets of arms cradling Reuben in a hug, before walking over to Nariko and extending her hand.

Nariko looked at the hand, before slowly pulling one hand away from the doorframe and then taking ahold of the other hand hesitantly, the two of them shaking. Jesse smiled, trying not to show how nervous she was, before slowly pulling Reuben's face away from her and turning around the pig hybrid to show the curly-black haired girl. "Um, this is Reuben."

A slow, faint smile came over her face. "He's cute. Is he your kid?"

"Wha-? Oh, no, he's, um..." A blank came into Jesse's head, and she blinked down at Reuben, who was trying to restrain his shivering to a more 'normal' level. "Uhh.." she flipped backwards, upper set of arms catching herself, and blinked at Ivor. "Um, Ivor, what would I call Reuben?"

Ivor blinked. "Uhhh..."

"Well, he _is_ like your kid," Petra pointed out, her face completely straight. "You take care of him."

"Well, yeah, but he was my pet before..."

Reuben gave her a mock-offended look, but it just looked downright adorable on his face, and ended up making Jesse giggle slightly. "Friend, I suppose I should say friend, not pet."

"Ooh, if he's your kid, does that mean I'm an uncle?" Jace asked, eyes lighting up.

"Wh-?"

"Then that means I'm a grandfather!" Ivor declared, a smile starting to form on his face. Harper snorted slightly, clearing her throat and glancing away upon everyone's look at her.

"Dad, _why-_?"

"Ooh, does that mean Lukas is the dad?"

Lukas choked, tail going ramrod straight at Aiden's question, the latter boy having this wide, extremely wicked grin on his face, ears pricking straight up as he hacked and tried to figure out how to breathe again. "Wait, _what_ -?!" he spluttered upon being able to breathe again.

"Ooh, I think that means Harper's the grandma!" Cassie joked, a bigger grin spreading over her face. This time, it was Harper who choked, her face going six shades of red and Ivor's going the same shade. " _What!_ "

Jesse grabbed the nearest non-violent thing she could find (a couch cushion) and chucked it at Aiden's head. "Q-quit it!"

"Oof!" Aiden was taken aback upon getting a faceful of pillow, but then he grabbed it off and chucked it back at Jesse. She ducked, and the pillow hit Nariko.

Everyone went still as Nariko blinked at the pillow now lying on the floor, before suddenly there was a blur of motion, and Cassie yelped as she was knocked off the couch by the pillow that went soaring at her head. "Got you!" Nariko crowed triumphantly, jumping up and down once with this extraordinarily pleased expression.

"How- _wow,_ you throw hard," Cassie eked out, "take _this!_ " She chucked another pillow, but her aim was a little off and she got Steve instead.

"Oh no- you do _not_ challenge me at a pillow fight and lose!" Steve grabbed three pillows and proceeded to hit Hadrian, Axel, and Olivia in the face.

And so began the most epic of pillow wars (not really, it was just a pillow fight... well, I mean, Maya managed to hit Gill while aiming for Jesse and Reuben managed to clock Isa in the legs and sent her tumbling right onto Milo, but otherwise it was pretty normal as far as pillow fights go) in which Ebony managed to send six pillows at once flying (somehow) and Nariko managed to demonstrate some of her surprising strength.

* * *

 **A/N: Lol, supposed to be serious but then it devolved to this xD**

 **RQTC: Have you ever wanted to trash someone but then couldn't?**

 **Lucykillrcassie: Sorryyyy (cringe)**

 **NoItsBecky: ... well, maybe not, but who knows xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	12. Hot Chocolate

"What's this?" Nariko poked the mug that was currently in her hands, somehow managing not to drop it and spill any of the hot, fragrant chocolate liquid in it.

"Hot chocolate. It's good, try it," Jesse suggested, taking a sip. Reuben was drinking it as well and had a nice little chocolate mustache, and Benedict's beak was now brown (not that Benedict seemed upset about this, actually quite the opposite). Lukas was waiting for his to cool off some more ("I have a cat-tongue so drinking this while it's still hot isn't going to be too good"), Aiden was sticking his forked tongue into the liquid, to Cassie's amusement (Winslow was sticking his tongue into the lukewarm hot chocolate she was holding while she wasn't paying attention) and the others were just quietly sipping, pillows and feathers still all over the floor and in other places (including their hair). Jesse was sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Nariko looked at her mug, before lifting it up and taking a sip. She'd taken one sip before pausing, indigo eye blinking, before a soft, happy sort of smile lit up her features. "Hmm~" she hummed happily.

Jace grinned at her, his tail wagging, before he took another sip of his own mug, tail wagging even faster as he sipped.

"So, uh, Nariko..."

"Hm?" Nariko looked up from her cup of hot chocolate, still sipping at it.

"Do you... remember anything?"

Nariko lowered her mug thoughtfully. "Hmmmm..." she said, lips twisting together much like Harper's did, her fingers drumming on her knee calmly, before her expression slowly went blank. "... well... no."

Ebony looked up from her own mug (her dragon tail was imitating Jace's and was wagging now that she was drinking her own hot chocolate), but Nariko's indigo eyes seemed to be fixed on the ceiling thoughtfully. "I don't think I can... it... ahhh..." and she rubbed her forehead a bit, face contorting into a more pained one. "It... hurts...?" The last part seemed to be stated more as a question.

"Wh- no, you don't- don't sweat it," Jesse said quickly, waving her two upper sets of arms in surrender. "It's fine if you can't remember."

Nariko lowered her hand, indigo eye staring into Jesse's almost anxiously, her unhealthily pale skin already starting to bead with sweat from the effort of remembering. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," and Jesse clambered to her feet quickly and gave the girl's shoulder a squeeze and the Witherstorm a comforting smile (oh... wow, she could not believe that she could ever put those two thoughts into one sentence, EVER), "seriously, don't worry about it, okay?"

Nariko blinked at her anxiously. "I... um... o-okay..." she slowly relaxed, hands going back down so they rested on her knees, trembling slightly.

Ivor's eyebrow went up. _The Witherstorm with amnesia? Who would've ever thought? Actually, now that I think about it, who would've ever thought that this thing would be reborn as a girl who looks like the first good wind will carry her away?_

Harper reached out and patted Nariko on the shoulder, making the curly-black-haired girl twist to see her. "Like Jesse said, don't worry. Just, uh, drink your hot chocolate."

"... okay." And without any further argument, Nariko went back to sipping the hot-chocolate, a more relaxed expression coming over her face.

"The power of chocolate," Aiden joked.

"Hear, hear," Cassie joked back, and the two teenagers giggled a bit. Ivor managed to catch Aiden's eye and gave him a smug look. _Not like that, huh?_

 _Shut up_ , Aiden mouthed back, his cheeks turning pink.

Alex and Steve caught each other's eyes and grinned, before Jesse let out a little sigh and set down her now-empty mug, Reuben looking up at Jesse. Jesse pulled out her handkerchief and handed it to him, the little boy setting down his own mug and wiping his face (Benedict taking the opportunity to dip his head into the remaining hot chocolate and drink some of it, to Isa's amusement).

"So... what now?"

Everyone looked at Milo, who turned a little pink. "I mean, we still have about a week until Christmas," he responded, defensively, "so what do we do now? Do we worry about stuff, or...?"

Everyone proceeded to look at Jesse expectantly.

"Why is everyone looking at me?" Jesse teasingly grouched, taking the hot-chocolate covered handkerchief, folding it, and sticking it into her pocket.

"Because you are our fearless leader," Petra said, grinning over her empty hot chocolate mug.

Honestly, Petra probably deserved to get that pillow chucked at her face.

Jesse rolled her eyes, crossing all of her arms. "Uhh... well, right now nothing's going wrong _yet_ , so... we should probably wait it out for something a little more drastic to happen."

There was a long pause as everyone considered this. Finally, Ebony lifted her shoulders in a shrug and let them fall again. "I suppose that works."

"Good!" Jesse clapped her hands together briskly as Reuben picked his mug back up and went back to drinking the hot chocolate. "Glad to hear it. Now, does anyone want or need to do anything urgent?"

Soren leaned back into the couch with a loud yawn in answer, making Isa blink at him before going back to her own hot chocolate, hiding her grin at the sight of Reuben playing with Benedict and playfully squabbling about the hot chocolate.

Lukas finally picked up his own hot chocolate and took a sip, glancing around at the now silent room, the occupants of which were all glancing at each other awkwardly.

Nariko finally gave a little cough, making everyone look over at the frail girl. "Uhh.. may I have something to eat?" she asked, meekly.

* * *

 **A/N: I did say the action has a slow start lol xD I meant a slow start. Most of the first 20 chapters is just humor and a bit of suspense.**

 **No new reviews :3**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	13. Identity Issues

_The man was standing in the cavern once again. Redstone that was dull and unlit sat on the rocks, and the screen was completely dim. There was still hints of red lighting to the whole cavern though, which seemed to be bathed in a pale, red light._

 _"Hmm... one last one, and then I can try to spur my plan into action." A rumble of amusement. "It's a good one, this time. No one will be able to stop me. Not my meddling_ brother _," he uttered the word 'brother' with such sarcasm that it was evident even through the generally heavy rumble that was his voice, "not that redhead. No one will be able to stop me here."_

 _He disappeared a moment later._

 _Redstone began to dissipate, blowing away from where the huge interlocking mess of wires was, slowly compacting as parts of the screen slowly flew away, compacting with the redstone, to begin forming a figure on the floor._

 _The man's voice"Not even those meddling... Authors, I think they're called? Yes... not even THEY will be able to prevent this plan."_

 _And the cavern shook with the wicked laugh that followed._

* * *

Steve had borrowed Lukas's pajamas (they were generally around the same size) and was now in the bathroom brushing his teeth. He was now seeing why Jesse had told him to get to the bathroom early on in the evening; there were far too many people in the one house. He was _pretty_ sure Isa was waiting outside the door right now, so he was trying to hurry it up so she could get her makeup off.

He spit out some of the toothpaste he'd received into the sink (Olivia had bleeped out of the room upon his request in a spray of purple-pink sparks and then reappeared a minute later with supplies) before straightening back up.

He'd barely done so when he stifled a scream and his back slammed into the wall, his heart jackhammering at a hundred miles an hour, blue eyes wide, his lungs dragging in air and letting it out again as he scrambled to get away from the mirror.

A minute passed, and nothing happened except a stinging, painful feeling slowly spread over his back. He slowly made his way back over to the mirror and examined his eyes again, his heart still racing at a million miles an hour. Yes, they were their normal blue; not that horrible glowing white that he'd spotted a moment before.

His heart slowed down again as his hands tightened on the sink, knuckles going white, closing his still-normal-blue eyes as his heart slowly calmed back down, his breathing still uneven and ragged.

 _Calm down, calm down, calm down..._

 _You're not him._

 _Calm down._

 _He's not you._

 _You're not in danger._

 ** _Calm down._**

* * *

Nariko was walking down the hallway, her gait slow and careful to avoid tripping or getting bowled over easily. She didn't know why she was like that, though- she looked frail and even a bit unhealthy, but she was actually extremely strong. She'd found out upon trying to throw that pillow at the redhead (Cassie, right? Yes, Cassie, that sounded correct.) and knocking her off the couch.

She wasn't sure how she'd woken up in this house, or indeed how she'd gotten here, or in fact who she was, but she was grateful to the people living here for their kindness. (Especially their kindness for not yelling at her for eating all (or, well, an extremely large amount of) their food...)

She was... she was pretty sure...

That she'd never...

She'd never felt wanted like this before.

It felt nice.

Something bumped into her legs, and she looked down to see the little kid that was sort of Jesse's holding the chicken? She was still unsure about all that, except for the fact that he was a pig hybrid. What was his name? Robert? No, it was a sandwich name. Tuna? Reuben! Reuben, that was his name.

"Oh, hi, Ms... Nari... ko..." The little boy trailed off, his pale brown eyes going wide as dinner plates upon seeing her.

Nariko slowly waved her arm in a little wave, a small, warm smile forming on her own face. "Hi Reuben," she said softly. "That's your name, right? Reuben." And she repeated the name to make sure she had it right.

Reuben slowly nodded. Nariko knelt down slowly so that they were on the same eye level, poking her finger out to the chicken... wasn't it the name of a breakfast dish that involved eggs? Florentine? No, Benedict, that was the chicken's name. ... even though Nariko was about 99 percent sure that it was a hen and not a rooster... The chicken nipped her finger, letting out another pleased cluck.

"Is Benedict your chicken? She's cute."

Reuben looked down at Benedict- he seemed to have forgotten he was even holding the chicken. "Wha? Oh, no, this is Ms. Isa's. I just like Benedict," and he hugged the chicken, which let out a series of pleased clucks.

"I see." Nariko stood back up again, patting the little boy on the head. "Well, I think I need to get going. Be forewarned there is a line a mile long in front of the restroom."

"I know, this happens all the time. Bye, Ms. Nariko!" and he waved to the waving young woman with a nervous little smile as she turned the corner.

Nariko's faint smile faded the moment he couldn't see her face anymore.

She didn't remember anything, but she was sure- she had this strange... _feeling_ that she'd scared people like this before.

She wasn't sure if she'd liked it or not in the past.

But she certainly didn't like it very much now.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey, the Witherstorm has a conscience, whaddaya know?**

 **RQTC: Do you ever find yourself talking and realize you've slipped into an accent or a language? That's me; I sometimes slip into Chinese or a British accent xD I am Chinese but nowhere near British, so this comes from my childhood of Harry Potter and Kipper, lol xD**

 **NoItsBecky: Yep, that's Jesse, just defuse the tension xD And pretty dang long. Hybrid took several chapters, didn't it? xD**

 **Toni42: Oh, they are (grins evilly) It's just that they just met Ebony and Nariko. They're just trying not to frighten them. xD Also Steve and Alex need to get a checkup so expect that sometime in the next few chapters xD**

 **Choco: Umm... maybe?**

 **MissyMattingly: Perhaps**

 **Luna96: (laughs) Apparently not.**

 **rebekahtpe: Trash as in verbally, sorry xD And I don't even know xD**

 **Guest: Ah, I'm glad you like it xD Thank you!**

 **Guest: Lol did it hurt? xD**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: Lol thanks xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	14. Testing, Testing, Part 1

Jesse was eating a piece of toast (not very original, but she had the holy grail of all things to spread on bread and stuff on it - Nutella - and this made it much better) when Ivor came in, discussing something very rapidly with Ellegaard and Harper.

"Oh, g'morning," and Jesse's lower arms waved a bit as she looked up from her toast. "Something up?"

Ellegaard yawned, covering her mouth with one hand. It was pretty obvious that the redstone engineer was NOT a morning person (also evidenced by the fact that one time Jesse had poked her in the morning to wake her up and the redstone engineer had thrown six redstone torches and a tissue at her in a hot panic). "Good morning, Jesse. Yes, we were..." cue yawn.

Ivor picked up from where Ellegaard had left off. "We were going to examine Ebony and Nariko to see if there were any... you know... oddities."

"Oh, and Aiden and the Blaze Rods."

"Yes, them too."

"And also give Steve and Alex what is commonly referred to as a 'checkup'," Harper added, her lips quirking up in a small smile, "just to check over them and make sure nothing's wrong with them. Did you want to join?"

Jesse kept munching away at her toast, but bobbed her head in a nod. "Sure, that sounds fine."

* * *

Ebony stood in a mostly white room. Jesse, Ivor, Ellegaard, Harper, Steve, Alex, and Nariko all stood behind a large table that was lying on its side, in case something exploded or something. The Blaze Rods were sitting behind the table behind the others, all shifting awkwardly as they watched.

"Okay, Ebony," Jesse called, reading off of Harper's clipboard while Ivor fiddled with the blood samples he'd taken from the two of them, Harper doing a quick checkup with Steve and Alex in the corner, "can you... uhh... breathe fire?"

Ebony stood still, before raising her shoulders in a shrug, face serenely blank. "I mean, I can try...?" she trailed off questioningly at the end, before taking a deep breath and exhaling sharply, like one would upon sighing loudly.

Nothing noticeable.

Ebony tried again a few more times, before shrugging and shaking her head. "Sorry- I don't think sooo _ooo_ -" She'd started walking forwards, but her foot caught on one of the floorboards, her eyes widened, and she stabbed her hands out to prepare to catch herself.

FWOOM! A blast of purple fire shot from her hand and ignited the table they were all hiding behind. Ivor looked over his shoulder at Jesse's loud yelp as she recoiled and jumped straight into Ellegaard, who yelped in her own turn and fell over, before chucking a bottle of water at the fire and dousing it.

Ebony blinked from where she was now kneeling on all fours. "... apparently I can, never mind."

* * *

"Do you have wings?"

Jesse had barely even finished the sentence when she looked up and saw a pair of huge black wings unfurling rapidly from her back, the wingspan about 16 feet in total. Ebony blinked up at her wings, still serenely blank. "... I suppose so."

"Okay," Jesse checked the clipboard, accidentally elbowing Ellegaard to see said clipboard, "can you fly?"

Ebony hopped into the air a little bit and gave her wings a good hard experimental flap.

She proceeded to accidentally launch herself into the air with a huge gust of wind and slam her back into the ceiling, yelp, and land flat on her face back on the floor.

Ebony then proceeded to inform the group exactly how many swears the Ender Dragon hybrid actually knew.

* * *

"Uhh, okay, do these things mean anything to you?"

Jesse waved one of the Ender Crystals in the air. Ebony's eyes followed them, and she stepped forward, automatically reaching out to hold it, Jesse setting the crystal in her hand. Ebony stared for several moments, eyes glowing faintly, before the bruise that had started forming on her forehead from dropping from the ceiling to the floor was fading, fading... gone.

Jesse's eyebrow went up, and she glanced at Ellegaard to make sure that the redstone engineer had seen what she'd seen.

Except, well, said redstone engineer was a sleep.

Man, she _really_ was not a morning person.

* * *

"Alright, Nariko, we're going to try a couple tests!" Jesse called, waving to the Witherstorm hybrid.

"... okay." And that was all they were going to get out of her.

"Ummm..." Jesse checked the clipboard, "how much do you eat?"

Aiden answered this question, sounding both amused and tired. "She ate three bagels, seven slices of toast, two apples, and a whole carton of milk this morning. Oh, and some yogurt."

"... I was hungry..." Nariko mumbled in answer to everyone's stares.

* * *

"Nariko, can you summon tentacles?"

"... what?"

"Tentacles. Like, big, black... tentacles," Jesse finished.

Gill applauded. "Wow. Best description ever," he joked.

Jesse smacked him.

Nariko tried for a good three minutes, her face going red as she concentrated until she looked like she was about to pop, but to no avail; nothing happened.

 _Hm, maybe it's a reaction?_ Jesse climbed out over the table and got into a fighting position. "Okay, Nariko..."

"Yes?"

"I'm going to try to fight you a little bit, just... do your best."

"Wha?"

Jesse didn't let Nariko finish, lunging at her-

She yelped as a heavy black tentacle slammed her into the floor. Ellegaard had flinched, Harper had jumped and bumped into Alex, and the three Blaze Rods were now in a small pile on the floor.

"Sorry! Sorry sorry!" Nariko looked panicked as she ran back over, the huge black tentacle that had formed snaking back out of existence, "that was not on purpose! Sorry!"

"Heard you the first time," Jesse joked, rubbing her back and suppressing a loud groan. _Man_ , that hurt.

* * *

"Can you hover?"

Ellegaard had asked this, looking a bit more perked up now that Ivor had handed her an energy drink.

Nariko crossed her arms and stared at the ceiling thoughtfully, her feet slowly rising off the ground so that she was hovering in the air about three feet off the floor. "Mmm, well, I don't know... why do..." she trailed off upon seeing everyone's stares. "Why is everyone staring at me?"

Maya wordlessly pointed. Nariko looked down.

"Oh."

* * *

Nariko also apparently had a tractor beam. However, she did not know how to control it, and so for five minutes everything went quite odd as random items (including Aiden, Jesse, the table, and the clipboard) went flying around the room as Nariko accidentally started dragging them closer, realized this, panicked, and then the tractor beam would flicker out and drop them back to the floor.

Ebony watched all of this from her perch on the seat, tapping her fingers anxiously together. "Is this normal?" she asked Ellegaard.

"I don't know, we've never done this sort of thing before."

"... oh."

* * *

 **A/N: Lol xD**

 **Blaze Rods are next chapter!**

 **RQTC: Have you ever forgotten your phone/device and realized that you needed it? Because I will die without reading fanfiction or working on my friend's gift today... (cries)**

 **rebekahtpe: Lol xD and oh yes. Many many times.**

 **LittleAngelbun: Hehe x3**

 **Toni42: Hehehe x3**

 **NoItsBecky: Yes, but I did say that action has a slow start. When I said 'a slow start', I did mean 'a slow start' xD**

 **LivtheWarrior: Hehe x3**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	15. Testing, Testing 2

"Okay... so... snake hybrid. Cool. What type of snake?"

Ellegaard was looking at Aiden with interest, the Blaze Rod sheepishly rubbing the back of his head from where he was standing. "Um... I don't know."

"Hmmm. Okay, d'you mind if we run a couple tests?"

"Uhh... sure."

* * *

"Can you spit poison?"

Aiden sent a look that may or may not have been looking like he was saying "wtf" at the redstone engineer. "Pardon?"

"Spit venom, more accurately," Jesse stepped in (thank Notch), "like a spitting cobra."

Aiden still had a bit of a blank look.

Jesse laughed a bit, covering her mouth a bit so as to try not to be rude. "Some cobras spit venom into people's eyes. That's pretty much the best explanation I can give you. I'm not a snake enthusiast all that much."

"Oh... okay."

Harper glanced up and hit a random button on a remote, making a dummy suddenly stand up from the floor and Aiden jump half a foot into the air. She gave him a sheepish grin. "Ahaha, sorry... it's just a practice thing. Just try it."

Aiden's eyebrows went up. "Uhh, okay."

Jesse stifled another laugh.

Aiden turned to the dummy, took a deep breath, eyes narrowing and this rattling sound, before spitting.

A spray of yellowish-clear liquid sprayed out from between his teeth, making him jump slightly in surprise as the spray of venom (yes, it was venom. What else would it be? Lemonade?) sprayed across the dummy's eye area.

"... wow," Gill and Maya chorused in the surprised silence that ensued.

"... I didn't know rattlesnakes could spit," Nariko commented at last, raising her hand a little bit.

Aiden blinked at her in return. "... neither did I," he mumbled at last.

* * *

"Okay, so he might be a spitting cobra... what about a boa constrictor?" Ellegaard was mumbling more to herself thoughtfully, tapping her pen on her wrist thoughtfully.

Aiden was ignoring how the redstone engineer was deep in thought at this point, simply animatedly discussing something with Maya. The brunette laughed, and Aiden let out his own bark of laughter and gave the girl a hug. She looked like she was about to hug back, a good humored grin and roll of the eyes on her face, before suddenly a shocked sort of look entered her eyes. She slowly stalled to a halt, eyes widening, arms partially raised.

Jesse pushed herself off of the chair she was perched on, squinting at Maya's face. The brunette was slowly growing extremely pale, eyes widening.

"Oh _crud_!" the spider hybrid had pretty much launched herself out of her seat at this point, everyone looking up at her loud exclamation, as had Gill, and now tugged the two apart. Aiden looked a bit confused before his own face went nearly as pale as Maya's had gone at the realization that he may have just nearly suffocated one of his best friends by _hugging_ her.

"... so that's a yes for the boa constrictor, then..." Ellegaard said faintly.

Jesse decided they should probably take a break.

Also, funnily enough, no one wanted to test if Aiden was an anaconda or not.

* * *

"O-kay, I'm curious to see what's up with you, never had a flying hybrid before- well, I mean, a 'normal' one, I guess," Harper said, reading off her own clipboard now- Steve and Alex had both been pronounced 'fine' and so now she was trying to help figure stuff out. Brilliant description, I know.

Maya gave the Old Builder a thumbs up. "I'm a little curious, too," she said, smiling sheepishly at the woman.

Harper returned the smile before checking the clipboard again. Aiden had gone back upstairs for some breakfast (and to go say hi to Cassie, even though he said he was doing nothing of the sort. As if.), and Gill was still waiting for his turn. At this point Ivor was asking Ellegaard to help take a peek at some of the blood samples. Jesse leaned forward a bit, interest sparkling in her eyes.

"Alright, well, first things first, the obvious question; do you have wings?"

Maya hesitated, before tapping her wrist thoughtfully. "Ummm... maybe?" She smiled a bit teasingly. Jesse laughed at this, Maya giving her a mulish smile in return and stretching. Slowly, something dark on her back began to stretch out.

Harper let out a low whistle. "Relax a bit more, would you please, Maya?"

Maya glanced down at Harper. "Ah...? Okay." Her shoulders slowly relaxed, and the dark black things on her back slowly started unfurling. They were most _definitely_ bat wings.

"Okay, second thing..." Harper checked her clipboard. A slow, interested smile spread over her face. "Echolocation."

Ebony blinked at the Old Builder. "Echo-lo-what-now?"

* * *

Ebony was pretty impressed with 'echolocation'. After tying a blindfold over Maya's eyes, the bat hybrid was able to flawlessly move around the room after a few, hesitant tries, and grab things, as long as she was talking... once going silent she would bump into things, including the wall, Jesse, and the table.

The wall was a certain favorite of hers, for some reason, she bumped into the wall a total of thirteen times. Yes, Ebony had been counting. Don't judge, alright?

* * *

Jesse spit out a blob of ink on the floor, Gill almost _literally_ fading out of sight from embarrassment as he apologized profusely. If you looked, his body was actually taking on the general color and appearance of their surroundings, making it seem as if the squid hybrid was disappearing from sight.

Jesse waved uncertainly, still laughing too hard to really say anything. Her face, shirt, and generally her front was covered in a very messy splurt of squid ink that had sprayed all over her clothing. To test if that function was there (you know, the ink function), she'd snuck up on him and then grabbed him by the shoulders.

He'd proceeded to jump six feet into the air, whirl around, and sent the black ink spraying all over his 'assailant'.

It was a little funny, but Ebony was unsure why Jesse was laughing so hard about the whole incident.

Well, whatever reason it was for, it certainly wasn't making Gill any less likely to stop fading out of sight.

Oh, or stop clinging to the ceiling. His tentacles, which had appeared out of the blue, were stuck to the ceiling and refused to come unstuck. It wasn't too much of a problem, though, he'd probably be stuck up there... oh... the rest of the day.

She also wasn't surprised that the squid hybrid could breathe underwater from one of the previous tests.

After Jesse finally finished laughing and mopped up a good deal of the squid ink, she checked her watch. "Mmmm, about noon. Do you guys want to go eat lunch?"

Nariko's stomach roared. The frail girl's face slowly turned red, so dark that it was nearing a shade of _purple_. "... yes please."

Honestly, Ebony probably wasn't the only one to stifle a soft laugh at this.

* * *

 **A/N: Uhh, if this chapter is shitty, that's because I'm writing it on my iPad in Taiwan on no sleep as of the last 26 hours or so, and am running on almost exclusively MCSM, music, and food. Sorry xD**

 **RQTC: When do you think (IRL) the action'll start happening?**

 **NoItsBecky: Hey, thanks!**

 **Angelwings: I'd just kind of tell them straight... xD I'd be blushing my face off but yeah**

 **Toni42: Tentacle is on back, and the wings can disappear at will but not the tail. Ebony doesn't know why either xD**

 **Luna96: (laughs)**

 **rebekahtpe: Of course not! (well, I mean, unless you're doing it at the worst time possible. For example: "Dude! The building is about to blow up! We have to get out of here!" "Sure, just let me read this one last chapter" xD**

 **SmolGamerBean: I would love to, but there are the readers who do not wish Lukesse to be in the story, so I cannot. xD Sorry!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	16. The Gift of Giving(or Thinking of Gifts)

Jesse skidded around the corner, failed to stop in time, and tripped over thin air and almost landed flat on top of Lukas, who yelped. "Whooops- sorry, Lukas," and the girl chuckled sheepishly.

"I-it's fine... did you need something?"

"Hm? Oh yeah..." Jesse theatrically looked around warily, making Lukas snort audibly and cover his mouth, before dropping her voice a little lower, "I actually wanted to get a gift for Ebony and Nariko. You know, for Christmas."

"... oh!" And he snapped his fingers. "Do you need someone to go shopping with you?"

"Yes please."

Lukas laughed a bit and rubbed his head, wincing a bit as his fingers caught and tugged on his ears. "Okay, let me wrangle Petra, Axel, Olivia and Ivor and we can all go shopping. We can disguise it as the fact that we need more groceries."

"Which is made all the more credible by the fact that we _do_ need a lot more groceries."

"Yeah, I don't think any of us expected that Nariko was going to show up."

"What, would you have expected her to be that hungry?"

"Considering that the Witherstorm really wasn't a picky eater, had I known that there was in fact going to be a Witherstorm hybrid, yes, I probably would've expected it."

"... touche."

* * *

"Well what do we get them? It's not like the Order ever asked the Ender Dragon what they liked," Olivia mused, examining some of the stalls. With both Axel and Petra in tow, getting through the snow was a pretty quick affair.

"No, and then we have Nariko to contend with... I don't know _anything_ about either of them."

Jesse laughed a bit, rubbing her head as her lower arms picked out groceries. "We didn't expect either of them to show up, so it's a bit of a hasty thing, but I'm sure we can grab something they'll like..." She compared two apples before stuffing the both of them into a bag. "So what do you guys think?"

Petra was trying not to laugh as Jace sniffed at some of the meats, but she glanced up at Jesse. "Hm? Oh. Ummmm... Ebony seems like she likes reading," and she scratched at her head, "do you think she might like a book?"

"... huh, that's a thought." Jesse scuffed her feet along the floor thoughtfully. "Maybe, but what book then?"

"Well, first things first, we are NOT getting her 'Fifty Types of Blocks'."

Ivor choked upon hearing that, Jace trotting back over and giving the Order of the Stone member a good hard thump on the back. "I... I'm not even going to ask when you read that, Lukas."

"You probably don't want to know, yeah." Lukas had the grace to look faintly embarrassed by this.

"How about 'The Petals of a Bloody Rose'? Or one of Soren's books? Notch knows he's written like 60," Axel suggested, tugging at his sleeve.

"63, to be precise," Ivor added.

"... I'm not sure I want to know how you know that..."

"Involved a lot of boredom and lack of potion ingredients," Ivor responded sagely.

"Ah."

"... the first one could work," Lukas murmured thoughtfully, "but which one of Soren's? Most of them are already in the library, and Ebony's a pretty fast reader. She read through that journal I was writing through in two hours."

"... oh, maybe we should ask Cassie; she likes reading a lot," Olivia cut in, snapping her fingers, "and she has a couple books that aren't widely sold. I'm sure it wouldn't be _too_ hard to ask her for something..."

"Yeah, that could work!" Jesse nodded in agreement, a small smile coming over her face, before it collapsed back into a small frown. "But then what should we get Nariko?"

"Nari- _oh_ , yeah... she doesn't read that much... Actually, so far, all I've seen her show much of an interest in is eating."

Jesse snorted. "Well, we can't just get her _food_ , it won't last that long..."

"Mmmm. We could get her farming or cooking supplies? She could make her own food," Axel suggested, scratching his head and letting his hoodie sleeve slide down to reveal a mottled green.

Petra's lips twisted together; she was obviously considering it. "... no, I don't think that'll work either... she doesn't show too much of an interest in it. Well, why don't we get her some clothes or something?"

Jace gave the redhead an 'are you totally insane' sort of look. "Petra, when does anybody appreciate CLOTHES for Christmas?"

Petra shrugged. "Well, the suit doesn't look all that comfortable... and also it's not very thick, it got soaked through after being in the snow for five minutes. We could get some yarn and knit her a sweater."

"And by 'we' you mean 'Jesse'," Jesse joked, making the friends snicker and Ivor clear his throat, looking up at something in the sky that looked _utterly_ fascinating. "But, sure, why not. What color yarn?"

"Indigo? Black?"

"That'll blend in with her hair... no, what about gray? I could sew in some white ribbon or something on the edges and make it look nice," Jesse suggested.

Ivor hummed thoughtfully. "Y'know, I think I have a scarf like that... I think it's a good idea."

"Great! Then I'll go get the yarn- Lukas and Olivia can go get the books... and I'm pretty sure Ivor, Jace, Axel and Petra can handle the groceries," Jesse clapped all six of her hands together in a faintly excited way, "see you later!" And after paying the booth vendor really quickly she bolted off to go find some yarn.

Lukas chuckled and shook his head, crossing his arms. "Same ol' Jesse."

"Oh you have no idea," Jace let out a joking groan. Everyone snickered as well

They didn't spot the glowing white eyes from amongst the snow-covered trees, blending in with the white snow and black silhouettes of the trees.

Then the eyes blinked and they were gone.

* * *

 **A/N: Oooh! Our mysterious (not really LOL) villain makes another appearance!**

 **RQTC: Who else is lowkey- hoping that MCSM comes out with a Season 2?**

 **NoItsBecky: Lol can't tell if that's a compliment or not xD uhm, I don't know actually xD**

 **Choco: Yaaay :3**

 **SmolGamerBean: Ahhh I see lol xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Hehehe x3**

 **Angelwings: I'm not too creative in terms of romance... xD**

 **MidNightTwist: Since I agree wholeheartedly with you I really can't judge xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	17. Oh, Hello There

Reuben was playing with Benedict on the floor of the library, Ebony reading a book nearby and keeping an eye on him. She didn't know why she had to, though- so far he hadn't stood near the fireplace whatsoever or even messed up the books. Benedict was being pretty well behaved, too. And- damn, her tail was uncomfortable to sit on. She shifted so that the tail flicked slightly in the air beside her rather than sitting on it. There, that was better.

Ebony's attention focused back on the book in her hands. It was one of the books by the ginger man who'd 'blinked her out of existence' using the... Command Block? Yes, that was it. It was called 'Walking with the Endermen' and it was actually pretty good. A little too biased for Ebony's taste, but she liked it all the same.

"Oh, hello, Ebony."

Ebony looked up to see the black, curly-haired 'Witherstorm' hybrid standing in the doorway to the library. Reuben had looked up from where he was playing, a momentary flash of fear lighting up his face, before his pale brown eyes darted back to the floor and he pretended that he hadn't spotted Nariko.

"Hello, Nariko." Ebony gently pushed herself out of her chair, fingers still clasping the book. "Did you need something?"

Nariko shifted slightly, her fingers moving upwards and pulling a spring of black hair out of her indigo eye. "Ahh... well, I just... I wanted to find someone to... sit with, is all." Nariko's voice was light and quiet, but the attempt at being casual failed when she proceeded to bite her lip and shift slightly over to one side.

"Oh." Ebony blinked at Nariko. She personally didn't understand the curly-haired girl's taste in company, considering that Ebony didn't know how to be social to save her life, but it wasn't her business to bother with it. "All right, then."

Nariko walked into the library and shut the door, shifting into a sitting position across from Reuben on the carpet. The pig hybrid definitely glanced up at her once before going back to Benedict.

Ebony hummed thoughtfully and went back to reading her book.

Well, that was, until something exploded.

Nariko's head jerked up, and she looked around. "What was that?"

Ebony blinked a bit, her tail flickering anxiously. "I don't know. It sounded bad."

The door to the library opened, and the white-haired woman who'd done some tests for them earlier came in, her hat and goggles crooked and her entire bodysuit covered in ashes and soot. She went straight to the redstone section and started pulling down a variety of books.

A spray of purple sparks next to Ebony. She looked up and, somehow, wasn't all that surprised to see the dark skinned Enderman hybrid standing next to her. She should've been, but she wasn't. "Mmmm, Harper, Cassie thinks we might need a piston book, but I think Ellegaard thinks it's more of a problem with the torch... what do you think?"

"I'm grabbing both," and Harper pivoted on her heel and set a huge pile of the books she'd already collected into Olivia's long arms. "D'you think it's a problem with the actual redstone trail? Hi, Ebony, Nariko, Reuben, Benedict," and Harper nodded at each of them in turn.

"Hi, Ms. Harper," Reuben piped up cheerfully, "d'you need something?"

"Mm? Well, yes, I'm looking for this book on the Redstone Heart, just in case... we're using it as a power source for this project we've been working on, it'll transform the geothermal energy into windpower or other energies and might be able to power the whole town-" She paused upon seeing the blank look on the small pig hybrid's and Nariko's face. Ebony looked rather confused as well.

"I'm looking for a book on the Redstone Heart," Harper summarized.

"Sixth shelf, third column, fifth row from the top," Ebony automatically stated, still reading 'Walking With the Endermen'.

"Wh-?" Harper leaned down to check the shelves. "... well, I'll be... how did you remember that?"

"I've been reading through the books. I've made mental markers for the ones I've been reading so I can find it again if I forget the title," Ebony responded serenely.

Olivia let out a slow whistle. "Now _that_ is impressive," she commented, eyebrow slowly rising. Ebony felt her pale cheeks slowly go pink, her tail beginning to flick around slightly in embarrassment. "I... it's nothing... I like reading..."

A huge tentacle snaked from Nariko's back (Reuben definitely flinched this time) and patted Ebony on the back.

Ebony shot a glare at Nariko, her face bright red now. "I- Nariko, that did not help."

"My apologies."

Reuben giggled at this, still glancing between the two of them nervously. Nariko glanced at Reuben at the giggle, her brow creasing slightly. Ebony was about to ask what was going on when Harper chuckled, making them all look at the white-haired woman, "Well, thanks for telling me where Soren put the book- he's a little too organized sometimes, my brain can't keep up." She gave another self-deprecating laugh and moved towards the door. "Well, we should probably get back to work.

Olivia puffed out of view again, making another spray of sparks and a dusting of soot land on the book Ebony was reading. Ebony gently swept off the pages, looking back at Reuben, a faint smile forming on her face. "Well... that was interesting."

"Interesting indeed," Nariko smiled in return, before glancing at Reuben again. The little pig hybrid blinked up at her before hugging Benedict, the small chicken clucking happily in the pig hybrid's hug-grip, trying to avoid Nariko's eyes.

He didn't notice the way the eyes softened sadly.

* * *

 **A/N: Hm, next three chapters should also be pretty calm.**

 **And then...**

 **...**

 **well, we'll see xD**

 **RQTC: Anyone watched FNAF the Musical on Random Encounters? It's surprisingly fun xD**

 **rebekahtpe: (laughs) Maybe :3 and wow, you noticed! Yep, that was a bit of a nod there. And I would kill... uhm... Cinder's boss. Or Cinder. Both work.**

 **Guest: Cool (goes back to my blackmail letter as well)**

 **Angelwings: Oooh, you're nocturnal xD and you like the taste of blood? THOU ART A VAMPIRE!**

 **Lucykillrcassie: Huehuehue x3 You'll see**

 **NoItsBecky: I did say I'd post an alternate one if a real one came out xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	18. Scared

Jesse was knitting together a sweater using solely her arms and willpower (so, well, it was more like weaving, but whatever) when the door nudged open. She looked up and for a moment thought that nobody was standing there.

And then the little pink-haired pig hybrid's head popped through the door, Benedict balancing in his fluffy pink hair and clucking contentedly.

"Oh, hi, Reuben," Jesse said after a few seconds, eyes softening and a warm smile coming over her face as she got over her surprise, "what's up?"

Reuben nudged his way over to Jesse and plopped down on the bed she was sitting on, Benedict hopping off and sitting in the little nest of blankets that Jesse had kicked off lazily. "I think Petra's making hot chocolate," he said, perking up at the very thought of it.

Jesse grimaced a little at Reuben and shrugged helplessly. "Aggh, can't make it, I have to finish knitting this thing-" and Jesse lifted the gray sweater in her hands up a bit, dancing it around, "by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's Christmas," Reuben pointed out, giving his pink locks a small tug.

Jesse nodded sagely at the response. "Exactly."

Reuben considered that statement, before poking the woolly garment with interest coming into his pale brown eyes. "Who's the sweater for?" he asked, as Benedict nipped at the silver-edged ribbon that Jesse had set on the bed.

Jesse's lowest set of arms reached out and tugged it back, making the chicken give her a faintly disgruntled squawk of complaint as she tossed the roll of ribbon into her lap. "Nariko. We're getting Ebony some books and Nariko a sweater for Christmas." She held out the completed sweater (except for the silver ribbon that she was planning on sewing in) and squinted at it for a moment. "Jeepers, did I do the purl stitch when I was supposed to do the knit stitch? This looks bizarre," and she tilted it around to get a better look at it. "Or, no, perhaps I did it the other way around..."

Reuben was quiet for a moment while Jesse was scrutinizing the sweater quietly. "She scares me," he said finally.

"Who? Ebony?" Jesse asked distractedly, still twisting the sweater around.

"No... Nariko."

Jesse stopped twisting the sweater around and slowly set it back on her legs from where she was sitting cross-legged. "Does she really? I don't think she's done anything to you recently, has she?" Her voice was surprisingly soft right then, green and red eyes narrowing a little bit.

"No..." Reuben's voice slowly rose in pitch until he was practically squeaking, pale brown eyes glimmering with tears.

Jesse let out a soft, sad sigh and pulled him closer to her. "Oh, Reuben..." She didn't know what else to say about it, so she just sighed again.

"I just... I can't stop..." Reuben stopped himself, his breath hitching, "I just can't stop thinking about it." The little pink pig hybrid started curling up, and Jesse's arms looped around him and tugged him closer yet again into a tight, warm hug. "Hey, it's alright, alright?" In most other situations, Jesse probably would've just smiled at the repetition of the term, but right now she just couldn't.

"... o-okay..." Reuben sniffed again. "I mean, she seems nice, but..." Slow shiver. "She still scares me."

Jesse sighed again and patted him on the shoulder. "You know, I don't really blame you for that. It's been a long time, but..." Jesse felt her lower arms start to fidget anxiously. "I still remember it like it was yesterday." She didn't have to explain what 'it' was- Reuben knew all too well.

Reuben didn't respond this time- he just bobbed his head in a slow, agreeing nod, pale brown eyes still luminous and shiny from the liquid currently filling them.

Jesse hugged him for another minute, her before she released him and lifted up the finished sweater, letting the ball of yarn drop to the floor and roll away before bumping into the door. Reuben's eyes slowly followed the ball of yarn, before he glanced at Benedict. Benedict was glancing back.

(Seriously, that was one really smart chicken.)

Another six seconds passed before he lunged off of the bed for the ball of yarn, a small flurry of white feathers flying into the air as Benedict jumped for it too. The sad mood vanished almost instantly as Jesse laughed, Reuben throwing the gray yarn into the air.

The door eked open again, Lukas's blonde head poking through the doorway. "What's going o-" His green-blue eyes followed the ball of yarn as his voice abruptly cut off. He watched the yarn fly through the air again, before jumping into the room as well and lunging for the yarn.

Jesse burst into laughter again as the two boys and the chicken knocked the ball of yarn over the floor as they tried to claim it, laughing so hard that she started making no sound, at least until-

 _Hic!_

Jesse clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide, before looking down at the two of them accusingly, her lowest set of arms going onto her hips and her middle set crossing over her midriff, upper set still clasped over her mouth. "Great, you guys- _hic!_ \- you guys gave me- _hic!_ \- hiccu- _hic!_ \- hiccup- _hic!_ \- hiccups!" she finally managed to finish.

Reuben caught the ball of yarn and blinked innocently up at Jesse. "But, Jesse, all I was doing was playing with this ball of yarn."

Honestly, he deserved the pillow that proceeded to clobber him in the face. He yelped a bit and fell over backwards, landing more or less smack on top of Benedict, who let out a complaining squawk again.

Lukas stole the yarn and ran away with it.

Jesse flopped back down on the bed. "I give up..."

* * *

 **A/N: Lol I feel Jesse's pain xD**

 **RQTC: Anyone watched the official video for Shelter by Porter Robinson?**

 **rebekahtpe: Pretty (yep same here), Stampylonghead, LD Shadow Lady, NateWantstoBattle, Markiplier, and Jacksepticye :)**

 **NoItsBecky: Nope, not just you.**

 **MidNightTwist: Oh- thanks!**

 **RapidSammi: True that :3 And yeah :/ well, I like Elements so far (no, seriously. Update. xD )**

 **Luna96: (laughs)**

 **LivtheWarrior: Oh, I plan to soon x3 And yeahh... Ebony's great xD**

 **Choco: :3**

 **LittleAngelbun: Well it's more like weaving, lol x3**

 **SmolGamerBean: I would, but I keep forgetting... lol! xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	19. We're Cool (and Good with Gifts)

Nariko blinked serenely at Lukas from her armchair, who was getting his claws ensnarled in a small sphere of yarn. "... I don't know what's going on. Do you know what's going on?" she asked Ebony, who was reading another book- now Nariko was _ninety percent sure_ she was reading something called Fifty Types of Blocks or something else like that.

Ebony looked back up as well and watched what was happening for a good ten seconds. "I do not know what's going on," she finally said, serenely.

"Oh." Nariko looked back at the blonde again, who was meowing cheerfully. No, really, he was meowing chirpily as he played with his yarn, blue-green eyes so completely dilated that it was a little bizarre as his tail flickered in the air cheerfully.

"Lukas? Where are- oh," and Nariko looked over to see Reuben standing in the doorway, looking torn between coming in and leaving.

She quickly made to get up, but then realized that if she moved quickly, he would get startled and most probably run away again, so she forced herself to stop before slowly lifting herself out of the chair. That in itself looked a bit funny since she paused with her bottom poised an inch or two above the actual seat cushion before getting up. "Um, hi, Reuben," she said, calmly, trying not to be too overexcited or too exciting.

Reuben's feet shuffled slightly. "I- um- hi," he said, voice becoming very small.

Nariko put her hands up in 'surrender', smiling slightly at him. "Um- Lukas was playing with some yarn," and she glanced at the blonde ocelot hybrid that was still entranced by the gray sphere of yarn. Seriously, what was the attraction of the yarn? It was just yarn.

Reuben's lips twitched as if he wanted to smile. "I- um- yeah, I can see that," he said in a small voice, but sounding faintly amused. That was slightly encouraging. At least he wasn't running away.

Nariko slowly ran a hand through her curly black hair, not taking her eye off of Reuben. "Um... I need to... I think I have to give you an apology," she said slowly, her lips slowly moving so that she was smiling a little bit. "I think I scared you somehow...? Or... did something bad to you? And, I don't know how, but... I'm really sorry about... whatever I did." She carefully moved her hand forward, extending it as she watched the tiny pig hybrid hopefully. "So... are... we cool?"

She'd heard the squid hybrid (Gill?) use that term when apologizing to Jesse about spraying what looked like a large bowl-full of ink all over her.

Reuben's eyes were wide as he stared at her, his mouth hanging open a little bit, pale-brown staring into indigo. The fear that was in his eyes slowly faded away so that it was a dull reminder of its former self- still there, but not very prominent.

Slowly, a smile formed on his young face, and he reached out, taking ahold of the extended hand. "Yeah... we're cool."

* * *

"Hey, Cassie?"

The redhead looked up to see Petra poking her head into the room. "Oh, hi, Petra. Did you need something?" she asked, tugging out her headphones.

"Uhhh, yeah- do you have a book that we _don't_ have in the library? We're planning on getting Ebony a couple of books for Christmas, and we've got 'The Petals of a Bloody Rose' but we were hoping we could get one of Soren's...?" Petra rubbed the back of her head, smiling slightly at the other redhead.

Cassie set down her axe and the stone she'd been sharpening it on, a small smile forming on her face. "Ahh... yeah, I've got one really good one that I've read far too many times."

Pushing herself out of her chair, she trotted over to the bookshelf and started scanning it, running her fingers over the spine. "Hmmm, no, this one's in the library, and this one, and this one- oh, this should be good," and she pulled out a rather thick black volume and tossed it to Petra.

Petra automatically reached out and caught the book, stumbling a bit from the impact of it. She turned it over to look at the cover of the book. "Ah, 'Shelter' by Porter Robinson? I think I've heard of it... but they keep selling out of it before we can make it to the bookstore, haha..."

Cassie laughed at that. "Yeah, for good reason; it's really good. I've got a second copy somewhere in here..." she glanced around at the piles of books surrounding her room and the desk on every flat surface. Petra was pretty sure there were a ton of books under the bed, for that matter.

"Well, anyway, I'm sure Ebony would like to read that," Cassie said briskly, drawing both sets of attention back to the redhead with glasses, "you should probably sneak it over to Soren's; he has some really nice gift-wrapping paper in his closet."

"... how do you...? Never mind, I don't think I really want to know..."

Cassie laughed sheepishly, adjusting her wire-rim glasses. "It involved a crap-ton of running and trying to hide from Olivia. I dodged into a random room and it turned out to be Soren's, so I poked around there for.. a couple minutes..."

"How long is 'a couple minutes'?" Petra asked drily, having spotted the hesitation.

Cassie waved airily, shrugging casually. "Oh... about twenty."

Petra excused herself to the hallway to:

A) Go sneak off to Soren's room to go get some of the gift-wrapping paper and

B) Laugh her head off.

* * *

 **A/N: (laughs) Welp that was this chapter. Next chapter will be pretty Christmas-y as far as chapters go.**

 **NoItsBecky: I will join you. And thanks!**

 **Choco: (laughs)**

 **rebekahtpe: Hehehehe x3 And thank you! RQLC: Cookies. Cookies fo' lyfe.**

 **angelwings: (bursts out laughing) This was a nice review. It made me laugh.**

 **ChoyofBonk: Lol I understand xD and yes, Benedict is a 'she'. You're probably going to have to convince Isa to release her though xD**

 **GuestPerson13: Yeah same here, but hey, at least they're sorta getting along now?**

 **SquiddyTheBlaze: Huehuehue x3 and... I don't know?**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	20. Happy Holidays (Fin)

Jesse was woken up rather rudely by a pig hybrid jumping on top of her stomach and a pillow to the face courtesy of her brother, whose mocha-colored hair and brown ears were all fluffy and messed up. "Oooof!"

"Jesse! Are you up are you up are you up?" Reuben was bouncing up and down in place like some sort of hyperactive small child (oh wait...), making Jesse grunt every time he pressed down on her stomach.

"Sort of...? Can I go back to sleep?" Jesse grumbled, one of her upper arms clawing the blanket up to a higher level and tugging it over her hair.

"No! It's Christmas!"

 _"Wait what seriously_ -" Reuben found himself flying backwards onto the carpet as Jesse bolted upright, the green-and-red-eyed girl's eyes wide and sparkling. Sparkling, I tell you. It was unreal. Jace wasn't helping matters either, as he was now cackling his head off like a maniac. "Nice job, sis. G'morning," he managed between howls of laughter.

Jesse shot her brother a look and very maturely stuck her tongue out at him. "Morning to you, too, Jace. Did you get the gift for Steve and Alex?"

"Took me three hours but yes," and the mocha-haired boy grinned playfully at her, tail wagging so fast it was practically blurring and hitting everything within a three-foot radius (including the carpet, the bedposts, and Reuben, who managed not to look too annoyed by this development). "Now come _onnnnnn_ I wanna open my presents!"

Jesse rubbed the sleep out of her eyes using her upper arms, lower and middle ones groping around for the alarm clock. "So, exactly... what time is it?"

"2:37 in the morning."

"..."

Reuben looked at the spider hybrid and his owner (owner? Did that still apply now that he was a hybrid? He was so confused about this) for a few moments before looking at Jace. "Jace?" he asked, innocently.

"Yeah?"

"I think you should run."

The last part wasn't even out of the pig hybrid's mouth when a slew of cursing worse than what Cassie Rose could do when in a poor mood, and a pillow, the alarm clock, a lamp, and a potato went flying at Jace's head, the wolf hybrid bolting out of the room and cackling at the top of his lungs. Honestly, if anyone was still asleep after this, Reuben was going to be _very_ surprised.

"All right, Reuben, c'mon," Jesse said finally, after finishing her little swearing session and replacing everything (the lamp's lampshade had a _distinct_ dent to it, now) where it ought to be, "we're going to wake everyone else up."

"But it's 2:40 in the morning now..."

"Hey, if Jace woke me up at this hour, everyone else has to suffer with me."

"... but aren't you nocturnal?"

"..." Jesse turned to look at Reuben, red eye coming first, a completely calm, blank look on her face.

Reuben became _extraordinarily_ interested in something on the ceiling. "I'll be quiet now."

"Thank you."

* * *

After about 15 minutes of waking everyone in the house up (this involved an airhorn, cymbals, and ducking as an axe, three knives, and an alarm clock went flying at their heads; and this was only one person), they were all sitting in the living room. Nobody had bothered turning the lights on yet, and it looked rather mystical with all of the twinkling lights strung up in the hallways and in the room and over the tree.

Cassie yawned, covering her mouth as tears formed in the corner of her eyes. "I don't see why we couldn't have done this at a more... normal hour...?" she managed through the yawn.

"Hey, if I'm up this early in the morning," and Jesse pointedly looked at her brother, who looked very pleased about having roused nearly 30 people from their sleep at 2 in the morning, "you are all going to suffer with me."

Ivor yawned as well, his hair actually looking doing this 'wavy' sort of style- probably from the bedhead. Harper was half-asleep still, as evidenced by the fact that she was sitting next to Mevia and hadn't even poked her or glared at her yet. Mevia and Hadrien really weren't doing much better, either...

"Well, anyway, putting aside our suffering and exhaustion, Merry Christmas!" Jesse poked a hand under the tree and pulled out a small, lumpy package with lots of holes in it, double-checking the label before lobbing it at Steve. "That's for you, Steve."

Steve was still half-asleep and got a bit of a rude awakening when the parcel hit him in the face and rebounded into his lap. "Hey!" he yelped, oblivious to everyone's snickers, before blinking down at the gift in his lap. "Wha...?"

Alex was giggling now, her face buried in a pillow. "Well, open it, you doofus," she eked out through helpless laughter.

Steve blinked down at the gift again and carefully pulled it open, before staring at the thing sitting in his lap.

"It was a bit of last minute thing... you said you liked- um- well, you said you liked 'The Killer Bunny' so, I went to the pet store and stopped there and spent like ten minutes looking for a rabbit with red eyes, and I found this one..." Jace trailed off and began steepling his fingers together anxiously. "Um, do you like it?"

Steve kept staring at the bunny blinking innocently up at him in his lap, padded safely in a small blanket, before looking up at Jace with watery eyes. "You are a wonderful wolf hybrid and I owe you fifty thousand dog biscuits."

"Wha? Oh... thanks?" Jace seemed unsure whether to look pleased or completely befuddled.

"Okay... next is... Alex!" Jesse tossed the harder-looking package over to the ginger girl, who caught it before blinking at the parcel. "Uhh...? Huh, it looks okay..." she slowly reached and pulled the ribbon off, before blinking as a flood of cyan gems came tumbling out of the package and landed all over her lap. "... diamonds?"

Jace coughed awkwardly, a sheepish grin coming over his face. "You... seem to like diamonds, so... we got you diamonds. About..." he tilted his head as he did some mental calculations. "Thirty?"

"That's only thirty? I thought that was a hundred," Maya said, staring at the brunette wolf hybrid, who let out a chuckle.

"Well, no, it might be seventy... but I lost count at thirty..."

Jesse made a sound that may or may not have been a snort.

Alex went scrambling to gather them all back up, looking a little shocked. "No, that's... that's a really nice gift... haven't gotten this many diamonds in... ever."

Aiden, who was sitting next to Steve, leaned over and mumbled something into the blue-eyed man's ear, said blue-eyed man turning fifty shades of red. "What- no- _what!_ " he spluttered as Aiden cackled, dodging the halfhearted swipe Steve aimed at him.

"Well, anyway," Jesse said, trying not to laugh her head off, "the next few gifts are for..."

For the next hour, the lights in the room twinkled as everyone slowly managed to figure out whose gifts were whose. Jace got several dog biscuits (which he was incredibly happy about), a few chew toys (and by a few I mean about thirteen), and a bone. He seemed surprised that Hadrien had sent him a small box of dog biscuits for Christmas, and finally gave him a soft pat on the back after seeming to deliberate what to do for ten minutes.

Petra got some diamonds as well, a red and gold sweater that had a lion embroidered on it (she swatted Lukas, the giver of the gift, with a grin, which he returned), scented candles (courtesy of several of the adults, which she gave deadpan looks), and an addition to her armor from Ivor- it was a set of gold gloves that reached up to her elbow, the gold material looking (and feeling) soft but in fact made of a material that heated up easily and didn't burn.

Lukas did NOT get yarn, but he got several notebooks and quills, a few books on how to become a writer (or a better one), and a lot of fish. When I say a lot of fish, by the way, I mean a LOT of it.

"What? We didn't really know what to get you..." Cassie chuckled sheepishly when he held up a large trout and turned to look at Cassie with a raised eyebrow, who had been the one to gift him with the trout.

Everyone got gifts that they all enjoyed (for the most part, although there were the gag gifts like the fish or a couple of books that the people receiving cracked up at), Ivor getting lots of new potions ingredients and Jesse getting lots of yarn, silk, stuff for weaving (which she pretended to be displeased about but was in fact ecstatic), and a couple novels. Even Hadrien and Mevia got gifts, which made the two Old Builders blink and look at each others as if they'd never gotten a Christmas gift. (By the way, if you're wondering what they got, Mevia got an enchanted axe, and Hadrien got an enchanted sword. Not the most creative of gifts, but they got gifts, so...)

Ebony and Nariko were sitting in the corner and chatting while the others all exclaimed or laughed at their gifts (especially Milo, who got a LOT of building materials. Like, I mean a LOT), when suddenly a lumpy package accidentally hit Nariko in the face. "Ahh!"

"Merry Christmas, Nari," Jesse called, smiling at the Witherstorm hybrid.

Nariko blinked at the package in her lap, before reaching down and pulling it open gingerly, setting aside the white ribbon on her lap and gently pulling open the red wrapping paper with silver snowflakes on it. Her eyes widened, hand going to her mouth as tears beaded in her eyes, before pulling out the gray sweater with white-and-silver ribbon sewed through on the edges.

"Um, I don't know if you like sweaters or not, but... I don't know, I personally thought you might li-" Jesse was cut off as a slew of black tentacles lashed out, grabbing the spider hybrid and yanking her over to where the two 'monster' hybrids were sitting, Nariko enveloping her in a hug that pretty much strangled the air out of her and stammering out an incredibly enthusiastic 'thank you' over and over again. And no, she totally wasn't crying, there was- there was a dust speck in her eyes. Or two. Or three. Or, okay, maybe she was crying a little bit...

"Oh, um, wow, I didn't- okay, okay, Nariko," and Jesse awkwardly patted the curly-haired girl on the back, looking bewildered, "I'm glad you like it..."

"I DON'T LIKE IT. I LOVE IT." Nariko's voice was unnaturally loud, and sounded a little choked.

Jesse twisted to see everyone else, most of the people who'd been present during the Witherstorm's rampage looking as if someone had suddenly thrown a glass of water all over them. "I- oh- okay- are you okay?" she eked out, still looking confused.

"YES." Nariko still sounded unnaturally loud.

Jesse turned back to Nariko and patted her on the back. "Uhh, cool... okay, calm down, Nariko..." Jesse was looking incredibly startled as Lukas stooped down and then trotted over to Ebony, placing a package in her lap. "Um, well, Merry Christmas to you, too, Ebony."

Ebony blinked at him, before carefully pulling the package open to see two books. Her eyes lit up as she pulled out a novel called 'Shelter' by Porter Robinson and 'The Petals of a Bloody Rose' as well. "You... thank you!" And she looked very cheerful at the prospect of two books for Christmas. "This... this is nice."

Jesse chuckled, finally managing to disentangle herself from Nariko's death hug. "No problem. Just..." She let out a little laugh and rubbed one hand through her hair, smile growing on her face, before looking around the room- at the two black haired monster hybrids, who looked fairly _ecstatic_ about their gifts, the old Order of the Stone, who were discussing their gifts animatedly, the Blaze Rods, who were looking surprised and happy about being included, the Old Builders (this included Harper, Otto, Isa...), all looking surprised about their gifts or happy or... well... like a family, the New Hybrid Order of the Stone, who were giggling over some of the gag gifts they received like a bunch of idiots, Milo and Reginald, who had exchanged gifts with _one another_ and actually were getting along for once, Reuben and Benedict and Winslow animatedly talking to one another in their little 'language', passing parcels and gifts around with each other, and Steve and Alex, who looked surprised that they'd been included too but not at all displeased.

Her smile widened just a little more.

"... Merry Christmas, everybody."

* * *

There was a white-eyed figure standing outside the window, unbeknownst to everyone else. The red-and-green haired figure standing next to him stood on his tiptoes as he peeked into the room, blinking as he practically dangled off the windowsill.

Herobrine crossed his arms and let a small smile play over his face as he stared at the scene in front of them, before glancing at the small boy with silver skin next to him. "Come on, PAMA."

PAMA turned to peek at Herobrine, before accidentally letting go of the windowsill and saluting before dropping into a waist-deep pile of snow. "Ooops!" he yelped.

Herobrine smirked before turning away. "Come along, then. We should probably get going."

"Alright, Herobrine. I will be useful- I can promise that."

"Good."

Herobrine was nearly gone before pausing, turning back just a bit to see the lights glowing through the darkness of the early morning.

"... Merry Christmas," he said finally.

And then the two figures were gone, the snow filling up their footprints until any trace of their existence was completely gone.

* * *

 **A/N: MERRY CHRISTMAS! Or... whatever you celebrate x3 Yes, this is the reason I didn't post a chapter for several days. But, on the bright side, I've been working on other stories, so those chapters'll be out pretty fast xD**

 **Okay... I may or may not have lied earlier when I said this was the sequel to Hybrid. I guess you could call it more of a 'holiday special'?**

 **This is just going to be more of a Christmas story, so now I need to change the title and all that...**

 **But ignoring that, the actual sequel will be up either by New Year's or a little before that (because I need to do a couple things before starting)**

 **So, yeah, sorry about the confusion xD I came up with a better idea than the one I had for Glitch, and it would take too long for me to change it all around now, so yeah...**

 **Glitch is now officially over... it is now called 'Christmas Confusion' xD**

 **NoItsBecky: Yep lol xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Either Lukesse (Lukas and F! Jesse), Jesskas (Lukas and M! Jesse), or... well, other people, but the list would get too long lol xD**

 **ChoyofBonk: Gift cards. xD And nope**

 **SmolGamerBean: This chapter was much more Christmas-y, and the beginning was especially fun to write.**

 **Toni42: (laughs) I know, right?**

 **RapidSammi: Heehee x3**

 **Choco: (laughs) Nice**

 **angelwings: Spared! SPARE THEM! xD**

 **NightShadeNinja: (shrugs) Beats me**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


End file.
